Aniki
by Buni-San
Summary: Saving themselves from Akatsuki, Naruto and Gaara get stuck in the past and decide to save the future and their own lives. Growing closer to their younger counterparts, family becomes irreplaceable. GaaSaku NaruHina later on. I don't own Naruto. OnHiatus.
1. Arc One: The Power That Frees Us

**Aniki**

Arc One**  
**

**Chapter One:**

The Power That Frees Us

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto. **Licensed****:** Masashi Kishimoto.

**Make **_**sure**_** you read the A/N at the end.**

--

There is a saying among shinobi.

It is an old saying, and it holds a lot of history to its words. It holds a lot of horror.

"The day the sun sets in the South is the day to smile."

Normally, someone with no shinobi training or background would listen to that and possibly laugh or become confused. The sun sets in the West, its a fact that is as true as saying that fisherman fish and air is what the fisherman breathes.

When the words are passed between shinobi, there is no laughter, there is no confusion. "The day the sun sets in the South is the day to smile." It is usually a saying said during the times of war, or battle or struggle. The saying reminds them of the day that comes for every living creature. It reminds them of the day that they die.

There is another version of the saying, it's less poetic, but the meaning is still the same.

"Pile the bodies of your enemies so tall that when you stand on them, you will be taller than even the sun. Make sure to grin while you're up there. Keep grinning while you jump off."

Never let it be said that times of war for a shinobi were pleasant.

--

**Tuesday 3:13 A.M.**

The noise of a body landing against the solid stone floor seemed louder and more amplified as it echoed through the vast and wide room. It bounced off of the stone walls, the stone ornaments of offerings, and the intimidating stone giant of a statue. Its hands reached up into the air, blinded by a stone cloth, seven open eyes grown from the band of figurative fabric.

Naruto, in a half conscious daze, caught a glimpse of black and red robes as he was tossed to the ground next to Gaara. They had been the last of the Jinchuuriki, and they had been captured. At the hands of Akatsuki, Naruto shifted his head slowly, forcing his eyes to see something, anything that may help him escape with Gaara.

The last thing he saw were silver eyes, like rippled water, seeming to glow by their own power as they glared down at him. It was only the ominous statue behind him that proved to be more terrifying.

"Begin the ritual. I want the Nine Tails as quickly as possible. We cannot afford to lose him, we may never get this chance again."

"Yes, Pein-sama."

--

**Monday 11:23 A.M.**

Hyuuga Hinata was a very shy person, it took a lot of courage to even say 'Good morning.' to some people. Mostly Uzumaki Naruto. She had heard of the devastating news, that he had lost his teacher only just after he had come back from his three year leave. She had wanted to give him her condolences, to try and help him through his depression. She had lost her mother when she was young, and could relate to the suffering he was going through. Unfortunately, just after he had managed to come home, he had been whisked off only a few days later, and had been gone for almost two more years, training again with the toads he summoned.

He had come back the night before last, and hadn't seen him yet. From the rumors that Sakura was spreading around, he had been dead tired upon arrival, and wearing shreds of cloth that had once perhaps been his clothes. Sakura spoke of a certain strength in his eye he had never had before, and Hinata couldn't help to admit that she wanted to see how strong he had become.

In all honesty, she hadn't quite planned on seeing him so soon, and if it were up to her, Hinata's shyness would have probably prevented her from ever going to see the blond object of her desires until he ended up running into her on the street.

But, The Hokage had given Hinata orders to get him some clothes and take him to see her, looking as clean and crisp as possible. She had three hours to get him ready for the meeting Tsunade-sama had arranged for Naruto, and she would accomplish this mission if it killed her!

Well, managing to raise her hand and knock on the door would probably be a good start, if the darn thing would listen to her and actually lift, that is.

After twenty minutes of pacing back and forth on his door step, mumbling to herself and desperately trying to summon her courage, the door flew open on its own, a next to naked and half asleep Naruto glaring at her with a raised fist.

There was a pause.

"H-...Hinata? What are you doing here?" He asked, seeming confused as he immediately calmed down and took a step towards her.

Hinata stared at him for a moment, the blood rushing to her face. "I-... The Hokage sent me..." She mumbled, glancing down for a brief moment. Almost immediately her eyes darted back up to his eyes, the poor Hyuuga's blush magnified two fold.

Naruto blinked and looked down at himself, a light blush coming to his own face before quickly rushing back inside and leaving the door open. Hinata watched him turn and head for his room, her hand rushing to her face in attempt to calm herself.

She didn't faint!

"I'm sorry Hinata! Come in! I'll be ready in a minute!"

Hinata gulped and slowly turned towards the open door.

Inside his house?

Alone?

"So what did Grandma-Tsunade send you over here for? Though I don't really mind the company, I miss being around people after spending so much time around toads! Even if they're weird..." The last part was mumbled, but Hinata's head sunk in depression when the quiet words just barley made themselves to her ears. The Hyuuga gave a depressed sigh and closed the door before slowly making her way over to his one and only piece of furniture.

She didn't even care when the stale dust came flying up around her.

He still thought she was weird?

_'It's hopeless...' _She thought to herself, falling into her old habits of holding her head down while pushing her fingers together.

Naruto rushed out of his room, blinking curiously at her while tying his forehead protector on. "You okay, Hinata?"

The Hyuuga sighed and nodded, seeming to shrink further. "Hokage-sama sent me to go with you to buy new clothes and then have you ready to meet with her in a few hours. I am to update you on all that has happened while you're gone and have you properly prepared to talk with the guest, who will also be involved in your meeting."

Naruto blinked, cocking his head to the side as he finished pulling down one of his only fitting shirts. Finding it a bit amusing that it didn't fit quite as well as it had three years ago. "Who's the guest for the meeting? Do you know?" He asked, turning towards his kitchen to fix himself something to eat.

Hinata shook her head. "No, but I got the impression from Hokage-sama that it is someone you know. She said 'It's bad enough he'll look like an idiot when they see each other, but I at least want him dressed presentably.'"

Naruto's eye twitched as he pulled the milk from the fridge, noticing that it was three years and two months expired, and looking like it was about to explode. "She said that, huh? Can't really blame her, I did look like crap when I came into town..." He mumbled, acting true to his bachelor nature and sticking the carton back into the fridge before closing it. "What about Sakura? Wouldn't she normally do this kind of thing because she's on my team and all?"

Hinata's head sunk a bit lower. "Well, Sakura-san has been very busy as a medic lately, and has been sent to take care of the shinobi guarding the border for their monthly health assessment. I'm sorry."

Naruto blinked and turned to face her. "Sorry? What are you sorry for?"

Hinata seemed to jump at the sudden question, and instantly lifted her head only to look back down a moment later. "W-well, I'm sorry that I am not Sakura-san, I know that you must have wanted to talk to her after you arrived. You two are very close and haven't seen each other in a very long time..." Hinata trailed off, adverting her eyes to one of the many cracks in the walls and silencing herself before she angered the young man before her.

Naruto tilted his head in confusion. "Well, yeah, but it's not like she's my only friend you know! I'm kinda glad it's not her, to tell the truth, she'd just ramble on and on and get pissed off for some stupid reason or another after a while, and I'd go flying through the Hokage monument and be expected to pay for the damages." He laughed, reaching up to scratch the back of his head.

Hinata gave a small giggle, finding the image of it quite funny. "Well, I don't think she'd go quite that far... but Sakura-san has gotten quite strong lately. She has intensified her training schedule to try and keep up with you and Kakashi-sensei."

"That right...?" Naruto mumbled, leaning back against his counter and crossing his arm. "Well, what about you? Have you gotten any stronger? Hehe, I bet you could blow Neji away now, huh?" He asked, a grin spreading across his face.

Hinata blush and flattened her hands against her lap, looking a bit more poise. "Well, I have been beating him in friendly combat more often..."

"That's great! I can't wait to see it myself, I wanna be there the next time so I can rub it in his face about what he said during the chunin exams! Thinking back on those days really pisses me off..."

Hinata blinked, staring at him for a moment. "Neji has apologized to me about that many times, it's not necessary--"

Naruto quickly jumped to a funny pose of crossing his arms and stubbornly twisting his face. "No way! I haven't seen it myself, and I wont be totally satisfied until I hear it with my own two ears!"

There was a moment of silence, and Naruto steadily held his humorous posture successfully until a quiet noise met his ear. He opened his tightly shut eyes and looked around for the odd sound, finally blinking and standing up straight once more when he noticed Hinata's head lowered once more and her shoulder's shaking a bit.

"You okay?" He asked, wondering to himself if she was about to faint again. The blond stood stalk still when the noise suddenly became louder, and he realized that it was her, giggling.

"I-I'm sorry! I-I just find it f-funny!" She managed to say through her giggles. "After being gone for so long, It's nice to see that you haven't changed one bit." She said, looking up with laugh filled eyes, a hand half covering her mouth.

Naruto blushed for a moment and turned his head, once again stubbornly crossing his arms. "Eeeeh? Sure I changed! I'm three different shades of serious and am smart enough to leave even Iruka-sensei gaping like a fish at my magnificence! Haha, for I, am a sage! That means I know...you know... Sage-y...stuff..." Naruto trailed off, frowning in his embarrassment. His blush only seemed to intensify when her laughter returned.

"Eeeeh? You think I'm funny, eh?" He asked, suddenly looking at her with his best impression of a gangster.

Hinata's giggling only grew harder. "Y-Yes! I have always thought Naruto-kun is very funny!" She laughed, quickly gasping and covering her mouth.

Naruto's grin almost looked like it would split his face. "Really?! Wow! Nobodies ever said I was funny!" He laughed, suddenly standing up straighter and touching his jaw in what might have been a 'cool' manner. "I can't help but think you've got a great sense of humor, only the best of the best!"

This time, he joined in with her laughter.

--

**Monday 12: 37 A.M.**

Tsunade turned to face away from her large office window and smiled as her guest was announced. The generously busted woman gave a pleasant smile, walking steadily and confidently up to the young village leader before her.

"Hello, Kazekage-sama! I hope your trip was pleasant?" She asked, holding her smile as the teen closed his eyes and gave a polite nod of the head.

"Yes, I can always appreciate Konoha's lovely weather and well mannered shinobi. You have a fine country here, Hokage-sama."

"Why thank you, I'm sure that if I ever got the chance to go to Suna I would think much the same. I may not look it, but I like to learn about new cultures. The culture of your country is especially interesting." She laughed, keeping up with the common pleasantries as they took their seats.

"So," Gaara began, clearing his throat and starting the serious conversation.

Tsunade sighed, turning her head to the side a bit as she brought her hands up near her face, knitting the fingers neatly. "...So."

"There are only two left. Naruto and I." He began, the weight and implication to his voice not that of a seventeen year old.

Tsunade nodded. "As I feared."

"Have you any plans of actions to preserve Naruto's safety should Akatsuki initiate a full scale attack on Konoha in effort to retrieve him? The possibility is not impossible."

Tsunade sighed and nodded, not missing the sharp look in the redheads eye as he gave his question. "I am aware that Akatsuki had infiltrated Suna and successfully captured you. I assure you, Konoha will not stand for such actions. Naruto is..."

Gaara nodded when after a moment he saw the small, rueful smile make its way to her painted lips. "Naruto is Naruto. He is unparalleled."

Tsunade sat back in her chair after a long moment, her heavy bust once again making itself known. "Exactly. He is a valuable shinobi, a valuable friend, a good person, someone all of Konoha is proud of. While I am still breathing, there is no way Akatsuki or anyone is getting their hands on him. Not only I, but all of Konoha and quite a few people outside of our little town will throw quite the fit if they see him in trouble." She said with a wink, earning a small, huff of a laugh from the ever so serious Shukakku host.

"Indeed. He has a lot of friends in a lot of high places. Not everyone can say that the Kazekage and all of Suna owe them a great debt. He has my friendship as well, something only he can say."

Tsunade's pleasant smile quickly fell into a tight thin and forced curve of the lips when her office door suddenly burst open, a laughing and decently dressed Uzumaki Naruto standing loudly in the room's opening. Gaara slowly turned his head, sharp sea foam eyes landing on the hyper blond. "...Though I must question my sanity when I am reminded of his personality." He finished flatly.

"Awe, don't say that Gaara! I'm your buddy and you know it! How you been?" Tsunade immediately tuned out the two's conversation and turned her attention to the quiet and somewhat rushed looking Hyuuga and she made her way quickly into the room.

"M-My apologies Hokage-sama. We arrived late and there is no excuse--"

Tsunade held up her hand, effectively silencing the slightly winded young woman. "Don't worry about it, everything's fine. Dismissed."

Hinata gave a bow and turned to leave, nearly jumping out of her skin when Naruto very suddenly and very loudly called her name. "Y-Yes, Naruto-kun?" She asked, a blush rushing to her face when the blond waved goodbye.

"Thanks for today! It was fun hanging out with you! See ya around!" He laughed, crossing his arms.

"Y-Yes, I enjoyed it as well. I will see you another time Naruto-kun." Hinata's blush deepened as she nodded, quickly giving a bow and rushing back out the door before she ended up fainting.

"I wonder why she always goes all red in the face? Does Hinata have a heath condition Grandma-Tsunade? Maybe that's why she faints all the time, huh?" A bead of sweat fell down the back of the blond's head when he turned to face his superior. Her glare sending shivers down his spine. It was almost a blessing when he felt eyes on him, and turned to look at his friend even if only to not have to see the look of promised pain the Hokage was giving off.

Gaara just stared at him, as though waiting for something.

Eventually Naruto gave up on trying to figure out what it was. "...What?"

Sand slapped Naruto on the back of the head before he even finished the question. "Idiot."

**Monday 2:12 P.M.**

"…Are you serious?"

Tsunade nodded her head once. "I know it's a lot to ask of you, since you had just returned to the village the other night, but--"

Naruto leaped out of his seat. "Grandma!"

Tsunade grunted loudly, caught off-guard when Naruto's arms suddenly latched around her in a fierce grip. The Hokage blushed when she noticed her fellow village leader shift in his seat, watching the spectacle of Naruto nuzzling her bosom with obvious amusement.

In an instant, her knuckles crashed down on Naruto's skull. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!" She demanded, biting her lip in rage and pain when Naruto's grip only tightened.

He was _crushing_ her chest!

"You're the best Hokage in the world! I love you! I'll follow you until the day I die! Thankyouthankyouthankyou_thankyou_! I won't let you down! I--"

"Damnit, Naruto! Get off of me!"

Tsunade turned in her seat when she was finally released, shaking her fist in embarrassed rage as her breasts throbbed sharply. A moment later, she turned back to the two Jinchuuriki, noticing that Naruto sat with perfect stiff posture, a ear-to-ear grin on his face.

Tsunade wanted to throw something at him.

Perhaps her desk.

No, she couldn't with the Kazekage in the room.

Damn.

For now, she'll settle for insults.

"You're too giddy about this, you dumb brat! It's not going to be a walk in the park-- you can die! You probably will! Show some modesty!" She snapped.

Her desk cracked a bit under her hands when Naruto only grinned brighter.

The blond actually _giggled_. "Sorry, Grandma-Tsunade! I've just been _dreaming_ about this day for years! I can't _wait_ until I--"

Gaara had finally had about enough of his friends antics. "Naruto." He said sharply.

Said teen turned his attention towards the redhead. "What?"

Gaara sighed quietly, closing his eyes. "War is not a time to be happy. You should not be 'giddy', as Hokage-sama said, about anyone of your allies dying."

When Naruto looked as though he were about to start arguing, Gaara shot him a sharp look. "Someone will die. It is impossible to go into battle against a foe as strong as Akatsuki without casualties on either side."

"They've already killed someone I care about." Naruto bit out. "I'm just _itching_ to get my hands on the fucker that killed my sensei."

Gaara turned his eyes to Naruto briefly. "…I see."

The Uzumaki set his jaw, grinding out his words. "Don't assume you know everything." The icy looks the two were throwing at each other were interrupted by a sudden frantic knock at the door.

Tsunade gave a heavy sigh and looked up, glaring poison at the infuriating entranceway. Silently relieved at the distraction. The last thing she wanted were two Jinchuuriki fighting in her office. "What?!"

Kotetsu opened the door, Izumo at his side and both looking a bit nervous. "I'm sorry Madam, but we've just received a letter from the Raikage addressed to you. We also have three shinobi from hidden cloud that request an immediate audience."

The two Kage and Naruto looked up, shocked at the announcement. "Y-Yes, send them in! Be quick!" She snapped, hurriedly raising to her feet along with Gaara and Naruto as the three foreign shinobi entered.

They gave a bow, shocked to notice the Kazekage in the room. "Good afternoon Hokage-sama, Kazekage-sama. We are sorry to intrude, but it is urgent." They all chimed together. At Tsunade's nod, the male stepped forward with the letter and placed it on her desk. Immediately she opened it and began reading.

"My name is Omoi, this is my team. We're given orders to inform you that Akatsuki and has captured the eight-tailed Jinchuuriki, Killerbee-sama. Killerbee-sama is the Raikage-sama's younger brother and Raikage-sama will not stand for this. You are to give a full explanation, and if your response does not clearly explain your actions, then he may sign the waver for war against Fire Nation."

Tsunade's jaw only dropped further and further as the dark skinned shinobi firmly rattled off his message. Gaara stood silently to the side, honestly shocked, but keeping out of two other country's political strife.

Naruto looked about ready to tear the cloud-nin's head off. "What the hell are you talking about?! Why does the Raikage want to start war all of a sudden?! What are you talking about 'explanation'!? Grandma?!" Naruto demanded, turning to the older woman for an explanation.

The cloud-nin simply stuck a sucker in his mouth and leaned his weight on one hip, his teammates remaining poised behind him. "Reports confirm Uchiha Sasuke as the one to have captured Killerbee-sama."

The look of shock that erupted from Naruto's face left the cloud-nin almost confused.

"...Sasuke? No... _No!_ That _can't_ be right! Why would he join _Akatsuki?! _He..." One of Naruto's hand's numbly made it's way to his stomach, pressing against the Kyuubi's seal.

Gaara lifted a hand to Naruto's shoulder, squeezing it once in a silent reassurance. "Naruto..." Their earlier quarrel lay forgotten for the moment.

The three Cloud-nin's heads shot up like lightning. Quickly, quietly, and without notice-- for the rest of the room's occupants were too deep in their own thoughts of Sasuke and Akatsuki at the moment, the three foreign shinobi had a little chat amongst themselves. Eventually, one of the girls was shoved forward. Her ever serious face shattered for a moment with a smile, and Naruto couldn't help but blink.

"Excuse me... Naruto-sama," Gaara wanted to raise an eyebrow. "Do you like... rap?" She asked, tilting her head to the side in what may have been a cute manor.

Naruto gave her an odd look. "Uh... No, why?"

Before he even finished answering, the girl was grabbed back by her teammates, who were once again whispering amongst themselves. Now paying them a little attention, he managed to catch a snippet of what it was they were talking about. He heard someone whisper something along the lines of "Their Jinchuuriki is _way_ better than Killerbee-sama." and became too confused to try and make out the rest of it.

The more poised and up until now, silent, final cloud-nin spoke up for her teammates as they blushed and regained their composure. "My deepest apologies, Kazekage-sama, Hokage-sama, Naruto-sama." Naruto blushed at being spoken so highly of again. "In Kumogakure, Jinchuuriki are a powerful figure head. To us, meeting you is a great honor." She said, bowing deeply.

Even Gaara felt uncomfortable when her ample cleavage seemed to nearly pop out of her blouse from the simple gesture. "I wasn't aware." Was all he said.

"Back to the subject," Tsunade said, calling all of their attention. "My answer is this: Uchiha Sasuke is a very, very powerful shinobi. He has been personally trained by Orochimaru and is the very last of his annoyingly powerful clan. He has been on every hunter-nin's list for the last six years and he has killed more of our own shinobi for his own selfish reasons than I would care to admit. We lost track of him three years ago, when he was captured by Akatsuki for reasons unknown. This is the first we've heard of him even being alive. Please inform the Raikage that we will allow him to take any action he wishes against Uchiha Sasuke and Akatsuki his wishes, and we will give him any and all information he asks for regarding Sasuke. However,"

Tsunade, held her hand up when Naruto looked about ready to go ballistic, effectively silencing him. "Uchiha Sasuke is powerful. Very, very powerful. I do not advise sending any less than a mid-sized army of the villages strongest shinobi after him should you be so foolish as to actually seek him out. If that boy wanted to, really wanted to, he could probably kill off most of your entire village before he gets bored."

The Kumogakure representatives' eyes sharpened, glaring politely at the Hokage, all the while nervous of her words. Naruto shook his head, his hand once again on his stomach. "No... I know Sasuke..."

All eyes turned to him, and he sighed. "An army wouldn't be enough."

Gaara closed his eyes and gave a brief huff of laughter. Instantly, the attention was on him. "The shinobi of Fire Country are monsters. Its a lucky thing most of them have morals."

Naruto's eye twitched. "Like you're one to talk."

Tsunade threw her hands up in the air, turning to gaze out of her bay window. She rested her forehead on the cool glass and sighed after a moment of collecting her thoughts. "Even if the Raikage himself went after Sasuke, he wouldn't win. Especially now, if he's in league with Akatsuki." Tsunade turned around once again, and turned to Naruto with heavy, apologetic eyes.

"There is only one person who can defeat Sasuke, and even then, he's more than likely to die doing it."

Naruto frowned, turning his eyes to the floor.

His hand clutched his stomach. "Don't worry Grandma, I won't die."

The three Cloud shinobi were taken aback, hearing that the only person that was strong enough to take out such a terrifying foe such as Uchiha Sasuke was just a few feet in front of them.

Naruto looked up, his eyes sharpened dangerously. "I can't die until I destroy Akatsuki. Sasuke signed his own death warrant by joining them."

Gaara watched the blond coldly, his pale eyes catching even the small flash of demonic appearance in Naruto's eyes and nails for the briefest of moments. Just as quickly, Naruto got a hold on himself once again and finished his thoughts. "He _can't_ be forgiven."

--

**Monday 3:51 P.M.**

Eight shadowed figures stood in front of a massive stone and wooden gate, their black robes shifting in the wind. A green leaf danced its way near a woman with blue hair and heavy make-up, before splitting in half and falling to the ground. Further pushed by the wind, its pieces tumbled a few feet to rest near one of the many robed bodies.

The cold hate he emanated seemed to intensify in his red eyes before the leave shriveled and turned to dust.

One of the orange haired bodies spoke, his face shadowed as he glared ahead. "Konoha's gates. We've arrived."

The raven haired member of the group only stared ahead, his face blank and his eyes transforming. After a short moment, he gave a smirk.

"Can't say I feel nostalgic."

"Are you ready?" Another one of the shinobi asked, the sunlight gleaming off his heavy black piercings.

The smirk only grew. "Yeah."

--

**Monday 3:51 P.M.**

Naruto kicked the door to his apartment down, stomping over the broken wood as he made his way into the back of the small, shabby apartment. Gaara stared down at the broken door, the Suna guards at his side, Temari and Kankuro, were silent and out of the way as he made his way over the casualty of the other Jinchuuriki's rage.

Gaara couldn't really blame him. Even he was enraged at the new information regarding the stray Uchiha.

"That dumb _bastard!_ I can't believe him! What the hell made him join Akatsuki?! I swear to Amaterasu, when I get my hands on him I'll―_ARG!!_"

Gaara nodded silently, looking around with a blank face, and ignoring the loud crashing sounds coming from the back of the apartment. Curiously, he observed the home of his friend. "Who is Amaterasu?" He asked offhandedly, tilting his head a bit at an old, hand drawn motivational poster for training.

"Figure it out yourself!"

Laughter could be heard from outside, and Temari's voice wafted in through the broken entranceway with an unmistakable humor to it. "I think she's this countries idol god."

Gaara let out a huff, ignoring the blond's aggravation and instead raised a brow in dull wonder when his fellow Jinchuuriki finally emerged in full gear and a heavy bag on his back. "Going somewhere?"

Naruto snorted, his face humorously contorted in annoyance. "Yeah. I'm gonna go beat the shit out of Sasuke, stomp Akatsuki, rescue this dumb Killerbug guy and then bring Sasuke's retarded ass back--"

In an instant explosion of sand, Naruto was blown back on his couch and Gaara was between him and the door, not looking at all pleased. "I knew it."

Naruto held the redhead's glare as he got back up on his feet. "What the hell, Gaara?!"

The response was instant. Flat. "You still fully intend to try and 'rescue' Uchiha Sasuke. What you said in the Hokage's office was just a farce."

Naruto scoffed. "Of course."

The sand around the young Kazekage's feet shifted dangerously. "He is a member of The Akatsuki."

Naruto shifted most of his weight to one side. It didn't go unnoticed to Gaara that his friend suddenly was unable to look him in the eye. "So what! That doesn't change the fact that I have to bring him back!"

"You're insane."

"I keep my promises."

"You're blinded by the past."

Naruto's eyes flashed, instantly back to stubbornly staring Gaara down. "The past, Gaara, is non of your damn business. He's my teammate, not yours."

The redhead brought his arms up from his sides to cross over his chest, assuming one of his more dangerous and impatient poses. "He is _not_ your teammate anymore. You have to know when to _let things go_." Gaara's voice seemed to grow deeper as he enunciated the last of his words, strengthening his argument.

The temperature in the apartment noticeably started to rise. "What the hell are you talking about?" Naruto growled.

Gaara didn't fold. "You have other friends, not just Sasuke. If you leave after him it's like your just handing yourself over to Akatsuki. For all the strength that you have, it's not enough to go against all of them and live. You will just be giving them another demon in gift wrap. For all the pain that Sasuke caused you when he left, just think about all the pain it will cause the people who care about you if you leave."

Naruto looked away, setting his jaw. "..."

Gaara continued. "The Hokage knows exactly how strong you are, and the faith that she has in your strength, and the faith that your friends have in your strength just makes you all the stronger. Just because she is having you lead the attack against Akatsuki does not mean that she wants you to get yourself killed. She doesn't want you to die, nobody does. What makes you think that this new information about Sasuke changes any of that?"

Naruto frowned, his fists clenching at his sides. "Gaara..." His voice had an unmistakable warning in it.

"No, you _will_ listen to me." Gaara snapped, taking a step towards his friend to better get his point across. "Uchiha Sasuke doesn't care about you. He doesn't care about anyone or anything except himself. That's how it has always been, that's how it will always be. It doesn't matter what you say, what you do, or how much friendship you throw at him. He won't change. You would be throwing your _life_ away for a fruitless cause."

Naruto's next words were like a knife in the gut to the young Kazekage. "I bet your brother used to think the same thing, huh?"

Gaara paused, his eyes open wide. "Naruto...That's--"

The Konoha shinobi shook his head, silencing his friend "If you say 'That's different.' I _swear_ I'll break your jaw." His voice hinted at his desire to do so anyway. "You know I can, so don't push it."

Gaara remained impassive, not reacting to the threat in the slightest. "Naruto, I am well aware of you're ability to change people. If it weren't for you, I don't even like to think of where my family, my country or even I would be right now. Even so, you have to see that you can't help the Uchiha."

Naruto's had finally reached his limit. "What would you know?! You never spoke to him! All you did was fight him! You don't know anything!"

Even through the blond's loud fit, Gaara remained silent and stern. "I know a lot more than you give me credit, Uzumaki."

Naruto grit his teeth. "And what the hell is _that_ supposed to mean?"

Gaara's eyes seemed to go a bit duller, looking more as though they were the eyes of a corpse. "I used to be a lot like the Uchiha myself, I know what its like to hate someone so much that I became obsessed with killing them. I know that kind of life. You _never_ will."

Naruto's head turned to the side as he glared off at nothing. Gaara continued, his voice growing quieter. "He is the kind of person that hunts down a southern sunset, Naruto. Just like I used to."

"You should listen to him, Naruto." A sudden voice said lazily, making the room's occupants' blood run cold. "He knows what he's talking about."

Naruto's eyes widened slowly, looking at the new teen in his apartment. "...Sasuke..."

The Uchiha nodded politely. "Yo." He soon after dropped the deathly still bodies of Gaara's siblings at his feet. Once his hands were free, he gave the still Jinchuuriki a mocking wave.

Gaara's sand exploded, instantly going after the newest Akatsuki member with fervor. Naruto saw Sasuke unsheathe his chokuto, electricity crackling at his wrist as he did, and went pale. "Gaara! Wait!"

--

**Monday 11:09 P.M.**

Naruto blinked slowly, his mind perfectly blank as he his vision started to clear. Finally, he was able to see. A moment later he was able to comprehend what it was he saw.

Running feet. Black robe. Trees. Dirt. Blood.

Naruto slowly and weakly lifted his head, going stiff when his eyes finally landed on Gaara. He was beaten, bloody, torn to shreds and didn't even look as though he was breathing. There was a long gash across his torso that made Naruto feel as though he were going to throw up.

"How is the One Tailed doing? We can't afford to have him die yet."

"He'll live long enough for the extraction if we hurry."

"The Nine Tailed is waking up."

"Again?"

Naruto struggled for a moment, tears rimming his eyes as the memories came back to him. The blond flailed madly, trying to get out of his capturer's grip and to his friend. A sharp pain at the back of his neck, and once again the teen feel limp and unconscious.

Sasuke grunted, roughly adjusting Naruto in his grasp. "I don't see why I have to carry him."

"He used to be _your_ teammate."

"Used to." Sasuke pointed out. "As in I don't want anything to do with him anymore."

Konan's ever stoic face and flat voice gave away nothing of her mirth. "I get the feeling the Nine Tailed host would be most depressed to hear that, Sasuke-san."

"Like I care." The Uchiha droned, grunting with his load as he landed roughly on a tree branch. "The faster we get this done with, the better." He said before pushing off strongly and pulling ahead of the others.

One of Pein's bodies quickly caught up, his silver eyes watching him carefully. "Your eagerness surprises me."

"Hn."

--

**Tuesday 8:47 P.M.**

Naruto floated in the chamber, Gaara unconscious and next to him. Both literally having their soul split in half and being killed slowly. The pain wasn't anywhere as agonizing as staring at Sasuke, who only stared back, continuously chanting whatever prayer or spell along with the other Akatsuki bastards.

The pull on Naruto's soul grew stronger, as did the pain. He closed his eyes, making a last ditch attempt to contact the demon within him.

Almost instantly he was standing in a dark hallway, the floor strangely dry.

Yet still, the deep rumbling of the fox's voice met him. "Foolish brat."

Naruto looked up, his eyes heavy.

The fox seemed smaller.

"Looks like this is the end for us, huh? Can't say I'm sad to see you go." Naruto began, pausing to take a shaky breath. "...I just wish you coulda at least stayed around long enough to see me become Hokage."

The Kyuubi lowered its head to rest on his paws. The air and walls around the two seems to dull, as though fading slowly. "As do I."

"You seem resigned to this death." Naruto began after a minute. "Guess there really is nothing you can do."

The fox's eyes shifted, landing on the blond. Naruto hadn't really ever noticed how old his eyes looked before, usually only staring at it's teeth. "I wish there were."

"Don't give up so easily."

--

Tobi, or rather, Madara stared at the two floating Jinchuuriki. Something wasn't right. Where normally the souls and chakra of the demons by now would have started to flow into the statue, it looked like nothing was happening. Granted, Akatsuki was a little short on personnel, but they had contained the five and seven tailed beasts at the same time. He knew that even by now the demonic spirits should have started to transfer.

Something was wrong.

--

Naruto turned around, the Kyuubi behind him lifting its heavy head.

"...Gaara...?"

Almost as soon as the words left his mouth, Naruto was staring at a transparent image of his friend. His body oddly covered in the same blue markings of the Shukakku. "Yes." The young Kazekage answered, his voice sounding very tired.

Then, through Gaara's lips, Shukakku's voice. "We are all here."

Naruto looked slightly confused, and slowly turned his head. Seven other visions surrounding him, but not of human shinobi.

"We are the Biju." A bull headed octopus said, his voice deep and rumbling. His tentacles still moving as though he were in water.

Naruto's attention was immediately drawn to his left. "We may have a way for you two to save us all." A black and purple hell cat finished, it's hissing voice sounding oddly feminine.

Naruto turned around, wanting to hear what his demon had to say before listening to the rest of them.

Kyuubi gave a deep, fang baring laugh. "Well then, lets hear it."

--

"Pein-sama."

"I am aware."

Sasuke glanced towards his two colleagues briefly, then to his masked ancestor at his side.

"What's wrong?" He asked, no curiosity in his voice, only strong professionalism.

Madara turned his head to the side a bit. "I'm not quite sure. What ever it is cant be good, though."

Sasuke frowned, looking around to the other sparse members. "Should we stop?" He asked.

Madara shook his head. "No. It's best to just keep it up and wait to see what happens. It may pass."

The younger Uchiha nodded, returning to focusing on his task.

--

"So... what your saying is that if you guys make a sudden spike of all your chakra, it'll send out something like a magnetic pulse and fry the Akatsuki bastards long enough for Gaara and I to escape?"

Naruto and Gaara, too tired to really focus, took the demon's silence as a sign of confirmation.

There was a thunderous quake as one of the largest of the beasts moved closer to the two humans. "You must swear to one day free us from this prison." It said, Its one yellow eye glaring down at them with just as much ferocity of even Kyuubi. "If not, you can die along with our hosts." The rather large and ugly turtle-like creature said.

There was a loud snorting sound, and Gaara turned to his immediate right, where one of the smaller demons stood powerfully. Its tusks moved as it spoke, oddly polished and decorated. "The Akatsuki don't even bury the bodies, they let the walking plant eat them. No class." The boar-looking creature pitched in.

Naruto closed his eyes, his hands reaching up to feel the burning seal on his stomach.

"Alright." He said, turning to Kyuubi, then Gaara.

"We'll do it." The dull eyed redhead finished.

--

The first thing Naruto did when he woke up was groan. When the feeling returned to his body, he groaned loudly. He barely had the strength to roll over to his side, but like any decent shinobi, he grit his teeth and dealt with the pain while surveying his surroundings. It looked like he was still in the same stone cave-like room. The state was still there, the difference being that it looked old and dirty, and all of its eyes were shut.

Looking around more carefully, he noticed that the walls and surrounding pillars that had, before, been standing tall and in one piece were broken and fallen on the ground inward towards his body.

A sudden quiet grunt caught his attention, and Naruto instantly looked directly behind him. His eyes widened when they fell on Gaara, who held a hand to his head as he shakily pushed himself to a sitting position.

"If I were a lesser man, I would probably say _I told you so_ right now." He wheezed, shooting the blond a brief, but powerful icy glare.

Naruto flinched, but quickly shook his head and got to his feet as hurriedly as his aching body would allow. "It's alright, I deserve it." He mumbled, reaching out to help the Kazekage up as well.

He was relieved when Gaara actually took his hand.

"What happened?" They asked at the same time. A moment of tense silence passed between them, before the two sighed and turned away from one another, silently deciding to look around for clues.

"Well it looks like the demons all kept to their promises and we're able to escape... I think." Naruto offered, looking back up at the dark statue for a moment, then turning away.

Gaara shook his head, random bits of sand floating towards him and sticking to his skin. "If the screeching in my head is anything to go by, I would believe it's safe to say I still have the Shukakku. What of Kyuubi?" He asked, turning to the blond.

Naruto closed his eyes and stood still, feeling around his own chakra for the familiar, hot sensation of the Kyuubi's. "...Yeah, he's still there. He's pretty quiet too."

Gaara nodded. "Indeed."

The too fell into another silence, this time while examining their own personal beings. Gaara frowned at the dirty, blood stained rags that were once his Kage robes. He didn't even have his own sand, or basic weapons for that matter. Taking a glance at Naruto, it was a safe bet to say that he wasn't much better off.

It would seem that Akatsuki wasn't so stupid as to leave even their most subdued captives armed.

Naruto glanced down at himself, frowning. The new clothes that Hinata had just bought for him were almost ruined, but after a good few washes and some sewing they'd be good as new, he figured. The blond sighed and dusted off his orange pants, making sure to get at even the thick black stripes on their sides. Kneeling down, he adjusted the athletic wraps around his calves before returning fully to his feet.

"I guess we had better get back to Konoha and see if everyone's okay." Naruto started, turning to his friend. "If Grandma-Tsunade got to them quick enough, I'm sure that Temari and Kankuro are okay."

Gaara turned to him for a moment, before turning around once again and walking towards the exit. "Yes."

Naruto sighed. _'Great, he's pissed at me. This is going to be a looong trip back...'_

--

Having no idea where they were, much less what country they were in, Naruto and Gaara had come to the mutual agreement to stop at the first town or village they came across. Luck seemed to be on their side, and within the first few hours of walking, the two came across a small farming community, where the closest thing there were to shinobi were the more muscular farmhands that were good with a plow. They were given directions to the community's only inn, and there they were given water and a place to rest for the night thanks to Naruto's wallet.

After spending so much time with Jiraiya, Naruto had learned a long time ago how to hide his money away from even a skilled ninja. Old habits died hard, it seemed. Even so, they were much too tired to refuse a bed for the night, almost having their souls sucked out of them and all.

"You two sure do look worse for wear." The barmaid said, handing them their drinks. The two took them gratefully. "My money grubbing Ma might try and make you pay for 'em, but I think you're about the same size as my brother. I'll see if I can't get you a decent change of clothes, Mister..." She trailed off, asking for their names.

Gaara felt his irritation rising, being treated like a commoner. "Sabaku no Gaara, Kazekage of Wind Country." He said rather sharply.

Much to his chagrin, the girl gave a huff. "Well, you're a long ways away from Wind Country! This here is Grass Country!" She said, honestly sounding surprised. The twenty-something-year-old turned her head to the side, as though examining him. "Funny... I went to school and everything, and in the textbooks... You don't look much like the Kazekage. Well, you do, but..."

Naruto lifted a hand to cover his mirth, guessing that the girl was talking about his father, but didn't say anything about it. "Well, they probably took the picture when he didn't get much sleep the night before. You know us shinobi-- busy, busy, busy!" He laughed. The dull glare Gaara shot him only proved to make him laugh harder.

The young bar maid shrugged, turning to leave and take care of her chores. "Maybe, what do I know?" She asked herself. "Well, Gaara-san, I'll have those clothes for you sometime soon." She said, turning the corner and heading into the back kitchen.

Naruto's animated giggling was abruptly ended by a fist of sand smacking the back of his head.

--

Naruto stared at the ceiling of the rented room, his face relaxed and mirroring nothing of his inner turmoil. The blond sighed, and turned his head to his left, where Gaara sat at the window pane, staring up at the full moon.

"This doesn't feel right, relaxing while Konoha could be burnt to the ground for all we know."

Gaara closed his eyes and nodded his head once. "Yes, but even you know that it is not the best idea to walk into an unknown area with no weapons and suffering from fatigue. We are honestly at our most vulnerable right now, and our demons at their weakest. When we arrive we will be able to help, and not be the ones needing it if we are at least rested."

Naruto pouted, crossing his arms behind his head. "I know... I just feel like crap about it."

"As do I. My siblings are in a foreign country and I do not even know if they are dead or alive. All I can to is hope for the best and be patient. You should too."

"Yeah," Naruto closed his eyes, taking Gaara's words to heart. He knew exactly how the redhead felt, having spent such long periods of time away from Konoha and not knowing anything of how any of his friends back home were holding up. One of his biggest fears was going back and hearing that Sakura, Kakashi or anyone else had been killed in the line of duty. "...I hear you."

--

"Hey, Gaara!"

The redhead's eyes shifted, turning to land on the blond just ahead of him as they ran along the last few of Grass Country's meadow hills. "What." As usual with the Shukakku host, even a question sounded like a statement.

Naruto frowned, slowing down just enough to run side by side with his friend. "Thinking about it now, it was pretty risky for you to show up in Konoha. I bet that's why Akatsuki attacked, you and me being so close together was like a chance they couldn't afford to miss."

"Perhaps."

The blond slowed down just enough to run side by side with his friend. "Why'd you come to Konoha?"

Gaara sighed and continued running, the outfit given to him by the barmaid being much easier to run in with the thick pants. "Economic trading budgets between the countries, safety and regulation change regarding foreign shinobi and civilians, we were also discussing the benefits of a skill trade." At the blond's confused stare, Gaara elaborated. "I was hoping to borrow a few of her more skillful medics, as Suna has some of the worst medical teams among the shinobi world."

Naruto blinked, looking quite the surprised party. "Really? Why is it that bad?"

Gaara turned his head to the side a bit, thinking of the best and most simplest way to describe the situation. "... Because my family was full of idiots."

Naruto almost tripped over his own feet. "What? Your family?"

Gaara nodded, keeping his pace. "You must not be aware of most of Wind Country's cultures."

"Well, no, not really." Naruto laughed, reaching up to scratch the back of his head for a moment.

"The title of Kazekage in Suna is passed down like a crown would through a monarchy. Unless I have children of proper age, if I am suddenly unable to assume my role as Kazekage, then it falls to Kankuro or Temari, then cousins and the like. If there are no other relatives, then the title is temporarily split amongst Suna's council until a new candidate is chosen or able to take the position."

The two gave slight grunts as they lifted up off the ground in near simultaneous leaps. Landing with ease up on the first branches of a woodland. The trees were beginning to thicken and weren't so far apart as they were an hour ago. It was a good sign, meaning that they were nearing Konoha.

Naruto grunted. "Sounds kinda weird, in Konoha, whoever the Hokage is chooses their successor, and if they die before they get the chance, the last Hokage is reinstated or a new one is chosen if its not possible. That's what happened with the Third, Fourth and Grandma-Tsunade. Yondaime was Sandaime's successor and then died in the Kyuubi attack, so the Old Man had to come back, Orochimaru killed him and then Tsunade was chosen."

Gaara lifted his chin a little, as though it were the first time someone had actually explained Konoha Kage Politics to him. "I see... Fire Country's culture is very different."

Naruto turned to look at his friend for a moment, then kicked off to another branch effortlessly. The blond couldn't help but grin at how winded Gaara was starting to look, and how awkwardly the redhead was going along the branches. He was keeping up, yes, but one didn't have to look at him for very long to notice that he wasn't in the greatest running shape, or that he did it very often.

As powerful as Gaara was, it took a lot of effort for Naruto not to laugh at the irony of Gaara falling to the downside of a desk job.

--

After seven hours of running and jumping at top speed, the two jinchuuriki had finally made it to Fire Country. Two hours after that, not stopping for any breaks or meals, the two had Konoha in their sights. Four hours after that, they were still staring at the village, having not taken a single step towards it. Night had fallen, and the two made plans to camp out in the trees instead of heading into the village for shelter.

Staring at his home for the umpteenth time, Naruto scowled. "I still don't understand it."

Gaara remained silent, sitting off in a close tree on a slightly higher branch. "It is... Most confusing." He agreed, crossing his arms as he, too, stared ahead.

"You have memories of Akatsuki trashing the place, right? Because _I _sure do, I _distinctly_ remember those four buildings being bulldozed by some kind of earth jutsu." Naruto said, pointing off to some of the more taller, more official buildings in Konoha.

Gaara nodded, staring straight ahead. "...Your Hokage mountain--"

"--Monument." Naruto absently corrected.

"--_Monument_." Gaara resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "...It is endowed with the faces of your current and previous Hokage, correct?" He asked, turning his head towards his friend.

Naruto nodded, crossing his arms. "Of course."

Gaara lifted his chin, turning his attention once again back towards the monument. "I find it curious that The Fifth isn't up there." He said, a thin finger pointing in it's direction.

"She _was_." The blond said, frowning. "Yeah... That particular detail has been bothering me the most."

"Something..." Gaara began.

Naruto's frown deepened. "...Is very, very..."

"_Wrong_ here."

**--**

**Massive Author's Note! Must read!**

Welcome to the new, bigger, better version of Aniki! More Plot! More Twists! More wit! Better spelling and grammar! Longer chapters and, best of all...More Gaara!

I would like to thank ViktorMayrin, author of _Hinata,_ and Nugar, author of _People Lie_ for helping me out so much on the older version of Aniki, and now, the newer version! With our little team, hopefully we can bring out the best in each other and bring our skills up to the next level!

Now, you may have some questions, like "What are you going to do with Gaara?" him being in Konoha first and all, well, this gives me a lot of good chances to really keep him in the plot instead of what I was doing in the first version. Any time it skipped over to Gaara, all he really did was talk to his siblings. (You may not have noticed, but since he showed up in Suna he's never even left his house! oo;;) I know that that was, literally, all my fault-- and some people may have even liked what I was doing with the story, but I, as the author, was really not pleased.

Another question some of you may have is "Why didn't you just delete Aniki and put this down as a new story?" The answer to that is simply that _**this is still the same story**_. Its the same plot, its the same characters, the same things are going to happen and the same people will go through the same problems. The only thing is that they will go through them in another way, sometimes under different circumstances.

That, and I'm a dirty little whore for reviews. I don't want to delete the ones I already had for the story. --;; Some of them had really good advise and some had really good ideas. I didn't want to lose them. Also, I wanted to save the readers the strife of having the story taken off of their favorites and alerts.

I apologize now, for the trouble and confusion It'll cause some people. But I must digress. It's my story, my plot, I can do what I want with it. Hopefully, this will be the first and only time that I'll make such a drastic change.

(Claps hands.) Now that we've gotten all that out of the way!

Thanks for reading the first chapter! (Again, in some cases.)

For the many questions, you have, please send a review or PM and I'll answer them post haste!

Buni-San


	2. Nostalgia

**Aniki**

Chapter Two:

**Nostalgia**

I Don't Own Naruto.

* * *

"Should we... check it out?"

Gaara thought of this for a moment. A: They were trapped inside a genjutsu. An odd, but very good one. B: Something strange has happened to Konoha and they may even be needed inside to help out with whatever the problem was. The Ichibi Jinchuuriki knew that he would have to make his decision quickly, otherwise Naruto would forgo any rational thought and just break ahead and enter with no plan and no idea of what is going on.

Gaara really disliked brash people.

So annoying.

"...While I think it is best to wait until we know what is going on..." He began, crossing his arms along with Naruto. "Our options are limited as we are now. I think that we should enter, but for the sake of our own security, should things go wrong, we should be discreet and perhaps even go in disguise."

Naruto reached up and scratched his jaw in thought. "...Yeah, that makes sense."

"Also, when we left the Akatsuki's lair, they weren't there."

The blond's hand fell back into being crossed. "I noticed that too, I was just more occupied with getting the hell out of there to mention it. You think they could be in the village?"

Gaara closed his eyes. "Well, the Uchiha appeared in your home with no detection. The chance is high."

Naruto nodded. "So, what's the game plan? Sad to say it, but you've got more experience infiltrating other villages than I do." He grinned.

Gaara gave a breath of laughter and nodded. "Yes, that would be the case." The redhead lifted his head and looked ahead to the village once again. "Well... When going to capture or kill someone or something, the best option is not to just rush in, but to stay back for a period of time and gather intelligence on the targets security, location and condition. Then you are able to change the initial plan of action if need be."

Naruto nodded, that was something he learned a long time ago, being on Kakashi-sensei's team and friends with Shikamaru. "Yeah, but I want to know if we should be hunting for Akatsuki bastards or heading straight for Grandma-Tsunade, or both. What do you think?"

Gaara raised a brow and turned towards his friend. "Both? We don't have nearly enough people to..." At Naruto's flat look, the redhead was reminded of who he was sitting with. "Ah, no. We don't want to set the alarm should your clone's be found or accidentally dismissed."

"So the plan is to head in under disguise, look around and gather information. If after a few sweeps everything looks okay, we'll head over towards Grandma-Tsunade?" Naruto asked, deciding to make sure before he jumped in and ended up not doing what he was supposed to.

"Yes. That is correct." Gaara said as he stood, Naruto quickly following after. "Also, it would be best if we stuck together. Not only is there strength in numbers, but this is not my village. I will become lost after a short while and become a liability."

Naruto grinned and nodded. "Alright, lets go then!"

* * *

"Kakashi-san! Ibiki-san!"

The two named shinobi turned around, their conversation interrupted when uniformed chunin appeared bowed and at their feet, slightly out of breath. The masked Hatake blinked, staring down at the new arrival with dull curiosity.

"What is it?" Ibiki demanded sharply.

The chunin quickly stood up and saluted. "We have just received word of two intruders heading in from the Northwest wall as of three minutes ago! They are posing as civilians, a man and woman! One blonde, one with auburn hair! Kakashi-san is hereby ordered to follow them and bring them to to Hokage tower. Ibiki-san, the Hokage requests your presence immediately! That is all!" The chunin gave a stiff bow, and before he even stood up, the two senior shinobi were gone.

A moment later, so was he.

* * *

Gaara walked quickly, his eyes closed and his mouth in a thin line. Next to him walked a smiling Naruko, breasts bouncing under her jacket and hips swaying almost too much with every step. Gaara's new brown eyebrows gave away to one twitch, followed shortly by another when his companion giggled-- yes, giggled at a passing gaggle of females.

"Naruto..." He said slowly, a bead of sweat falling down the side of his face. "What are you doing?"

"My name is Naru_ko_, Garei-san. Don't confuse me with your cute friend." She said, winking. Gaara felt like slapping his forehead, but as always, stopped himself before he ended up looking like an idiot.

He wished that certain blond Jinchuuriki would have the same courtesy.

"My apologies, Naruko." He said tightly. "But would you please mind acting like more of a lady instead of a dirty magazine model?" He said flatly. Naruko fell behind a step, sweating a little. She quickly caught back up, walking with much more grace.

Gaara was just happy to notice that her breasts had stopped bouncing.

"Have you noticed it yet, or have you just been looking at my boobs this whole time?" Naruko asked, her eyes nearly shut and sporting a light blush.

Gaara nodded. "Indeed."

Fashion couldn't really be held as_ good _in a ninja village. Naruto being able to find eye-blisteringly-orange outfits were clear proof of that. The fashion in a village like Konoha didn't change much, either. Konoha was, however, one of the more prosperous villages in the world, so it did change. Very subtly, very slowly. Mostly in the areas that the shinobi would pay attention to. The cloth used, the colors, the number of pockets... What changed the most, however were the shoes. Normally they would appear as a simple, open toe and heel sandal with hidden laces or zippers. That wasn't necessarily the case.

The shoes had open toes and heels to make running and footwork faster and more precise. The laces were hidden so that they wouldn't catch or trip the wearer up. Most recently, even the treading at the bottom was crafted to minimize sound when walking. The different blends of leather, cloth and rubber change often enough in efforts to help make the work of shinobi easier, that 'Shoe shopping.' could almost be called a job requirement. Especially to the more fashion aware kunoichi. It's one of the first things mentioned in any academy.

Where as "Garei" and "Naruko's" shoes were next to completely silent, even on the dirt pathways... The shoes of the passerbys, shinobi and civilian alike, were all very loud and very distinct. 'shuffs' 'skifs' and 'taks' could be heard from all sides, almost to the point where it was disorientating.

In addition, having a female Hokage, there has been a boom of kunoichi since her installment five years ago. That also brought more of a demand for 'Kunoichified' _everything_. Hair clips, jewelry, clothes, toys, Naruto even remembered hearing Hinata joke about Ino's new eyeliner that had a senbon dart out of it if the case was twisted just right. Weapons were made lighter, the demand for clothes that helped absorb or conceal scent became higher. Not only shoes, but equipment pouches, mesh, athletic bandages and even the bands that held forehead protectors were offered in more colors than blue and black.

Konoha grew only stronger because of it. Ninja were harder to spot, harder to guess their ranks, and harder to kill just because of it. Kunoichi especially. The idea quickly spread to the other hidden villages, and shinobi were labeled as more dangerous and deadly than ever.

Naruko and Garei frowned, very confused as to why things looked so... different. It was unsettling.

Hopefully, as the day progressed, they would figure out what was going on.

* * *

Kakashi leaped across a business roof, following after the new unwelcome arrivals with a weary eye. So far, they had done little to raise any alarm. He wasn't stupid though, he could tell just by looking at the two that they were surveying the area. For what, he didn't know. That one fact made him all the more cautious.

He didn't know anything about them, but like any skilled shinobi, he was gathering more and more information the longer he watched them. From observing their habits, idiosyncrasies and even the way they moved, Kakashi could tell that they were shinobi, and that they were _good _shinobi.

They didn't make a lot of noise, to the point that they even stood out because of it. Their senses of balance were impeccable, their chakra didn't so much as twitch-- even when bumped by other people on the street. They had an air of confidence about them that even the most skilled and experienced infiltrator could never achieve.

But the most terrifying thing about them, was that they seemed to know their way around.

Kakashi frowned under his mask and leaped to the next roof, walking slowly and following them from behind. There was a movement across the way, and Kakashi was pleased to notice that two ANBU had arrived. Unfortunately for the Konoha boogiemen, these two new oddities had earned his curiosity.

He wouldn't let them just kill or haul the two off before he found out a little more himself.

* * *

Only an hour into the village, and Naruko was about to go insane.

"There's only one explanation for whats going on. I don't believe it myself, but..." She trailed off, staring across the street, the food she and Garei ordered going cold on the table.

The disguised Jinchuuriki to her left shook his head. "I have thought the same thing myself, but it is too outrageous a statement to commit to without first proving it." He said, watching with cool, unblinking eyes as a group of children ran out of a store across the street. Moments later followed by an irate shop owner.

Naruko turned her attention to her companion, her pretty face twisted in confusion. "Prove it? Like how?" She asked, perplexed.

Garei's eyes turned to meet hers, his face staying calm and blank. "Find someone who is dead. Find a friend and ask them something only they would know. If the monument is anything to go by, we're between five and twenty years in the 'past'. It should be safe to at least assume that you, and your friends are born. _If_ we are in the past at all." He explained, turning his attention once again to the street.

Naruko pouted, glancing up at the monument once more. Garei had a pretty solid point. "Alright, so who should we look for?"

Garei closed his, thinking. "...It's best to avoid the Uchiha. If this is a genjutsu, then all the detail for Konoha could just as easily come from him or his elder brother. We should look for someone who hasn't even come across Akatsuki, perhaps a civilian you know. Then, just to make sure, we should try at least two other people. They don't necessarily have to be civilians."

Naruko leaned back in her seat, her arms crossed under her bosom. "Hm... Well, as far as civilians go... I really only talk to the owner of my favorite ramen stand, and his daughter. Just by looking at her we should be able to guess the year, if she's there. She's about five years older than me, so..." She said, opening her eyes and shrugging.

Gaara nodded and stood. "It's good enough to start with."

He didn't need to ask why Naruto didn't have many civilian friends. He didn't need to.

"Alright." Naruko said, standing up and adjusting her shirt. The new orange and black jacket open, not giving her enough room to breath with such large...endowments, when closed. "It's about ten minutes from here if we walk quickly." She said, pointing off in another direction.

Gaara nodded and started to walk.

* * *

"Kakashi-sempai, this cannot go on for much longer." The ANBU stated, his voice flat and with no emotion behind his mask.

Kakashi's response was to leap to the next building. In little to no time afterwards the ANBU right next to him again. "I am aware of that." He said, turning as his targets did. "Even though it is more cautious not to, I would rather learn more about them than capture them now and learn nothing."

The ANBU gave a slight sigh, but didn't press the matter further.

"I hope you're not doing this simply because the woman has a nice body."

Well, didn't press it further _much_, anyway.

Kakashi couldn't help himself, and turned to the ANBU, his one eye turned up in amusement. "Certainly not."

* * *

Naruko stared.

For a very long time.

Blinked.

Then stared some more.

For a very, very long time.

"Um... Are you okay, ma'am?" The little girl asked, feeling uncomfortable under the older woman's eyes.

Naruko knew that she was Ayame. She had to be, the ten, maybe eleven-year-old had to be. She had the apron, the white uniform, and the damn name tag. She looked the same, sounded the same... though younger-- and above all else, her father was behind her, in the kitchen.

He looked kinda weird being... well, not old.

Teuchi was always old.

That's why Naruto called him 'Old Man Ichiraku.', because he was old.

This Teuchi was not old.

This Teuchi didn't even have old man face lines yet.

Hell, his hair was still black.

A very, very strange sight indeed.

"My deepest apologies. She is a bit... odd." Garei said, staring flatly at the blonde with his menu in hand.

She just continued to stare at the little girl.

A bead of sweat rolled down the back of Ayame's head, and she tried to smile. "Y-Yes... Well... What will you have?"

The answer was instant, and with such professionalism it was down right scary. "One large miso ramen with two sides of pork. I want the leek boiled with the noodles, not the broth. No radish. I want it salty, not sweet, and I want my tofu fried for thirty seconds with the pork after its boiled. I want a the Wave seaweed, not Mist import. I want two helpings of red dango and a side of oyster sauce." She paused for a minute, then continued. :My friend will have two plain onigiri, extra salt."

Gaara glared at his menu, slowly closing it and setting it aside.

Ayame and Teuchi stood oddly stiff. The poor girl gave a nervous laugh. "...A-And your...drink?"

Naruko closed her eyes and smiled cutely. "Ice tea!"

Garei didn't even blink when the blonde suddenly jumped, clutching her leg and wincing. She quickly turned to her friend. "What was that for?!"

Garei handed Ayame his menu, his face blank. "I don't know what you're talking about."

* * *

While Garei held pleasant conversation with Ayame about something or other-- she was just gathering information anyways-- Naruko was in the early throws of her own personal war.

She split her chopsticks, and the battle had begun.

Staring down at the beautiful meal in front of her, Naruko first tested the scent of the food. The ramen of the future was of course, much better after Ayame had been kidnapped, and Teuchi had been forced to come up with a newer, more perfect ramen with Sakura, Choji, and his help. Even so, Naruko knew what 'Old-school Ichiraku Ramen' tasted like.

Remembering Choji's lesson in tasting, she first took his ladle and dipped it in the broth, carefully tasting it. Perfect.

Next, she took her chopsticks and made sure the noodles got a healthy amount of broth on them, and leaned over to eat them without making a mess. She chewed, frowning. Also perfect.

Pork: perfect.

Tofu: perfect.

Dango: perfect.

The list went on.

Naruko sighed, setting her chopsticks over the empty bowl and leaned back, thinking.

Ayame and Teuchi couldn't help but gulp. "W-...well? How was it?" He asked, feeling nervous. He was the owner of a little shop, and had never had such a serious taste tester in his mitts before.

Garei glared down at his half-eaten onigiri. His appetite lost for some reason.

"It's perfect. Completely, utterly, and without a doubt... perfect. One hundred percent, grade-A Ichiraku ramen." She said, seeming oddly depressed after declaring the food so delicious.

Garei nodded, standing up. Naruko quickly followed after him, waving goodbye at the confused and blushing shop owners as they left. Several minutes passed before the two said anything, and by then they were almost at the academy's doorsteps.

Naruko crossed her arms, pouting. "Yeah, well I dragged Sasuke to Ichiraku all the time, he would know what it tasted like..."

Garei eyed him for a moment, before turning his attention back at the academy. "He never ate that flavor of ramen, if he ate it at all, did he?" He asked, nodding when a moment passed and he was met with no answer.

"It doesn't mean anything! Sasuke was an anti-social jerk, he could've gone there and ordered my ramen flavor behind my back one day. Or he coulda stole Teuchi's recipe with his Sharingan just to be weird. You never know with him." She groused, sweating a little.

Garei remained silent, watching the students pile out of the school one after another for what must have been the lunch break. He didn't see anyone he recognized in Naruto's age range, but then again, if Ayame's age was anything to go by, then the young Naruto, or any of his classmates, wouldn't be enrolled yet.

"We should still cover the bases. Who do you know is dead, that would still be alive now?" He asked, turning towards his friend when a group of kids started to kick a ball around.

Naruto bit her cheek for a moment, thinking. "...Mizuki, Asuma-sensei, and...well..." Garei noticed the blonde look up towards the monument for a moment and understood.

"Where would they be?" He asked.

The Kyuubi Jinchuuriki threw her arms up in exasperation. "I don't know! It's not like I knew them personally, and even if I did, they'd be in their teens right now! Mizuki was a teacher at the academy, but before that?! --I once heard Shikamaru mention that Asuma-sensei used to stay at a temple before coming 'back' to Konoha, I don't even have the slightest clue where that would be!"

"Calm yourself," Naruko did. "Getting upset will not help us. I am in even more of a disposition than you. So don't freak out about trying to guess the everyday lives of someone you wouldn't have known as a child. We will simply find someone on our own power, through accident or otherwise. We are shinobi, we will figure this out."

Naruko looked away for a minute, thinking. "...The Old Man, he's the only one I can think of right now. He would be alive, I know where he is, and we need to find him anyway."

Garei sighed, his faux eyebrows knitting together in aggravated thought. "...While that would be an easy choice, it is not the best." Gaara paused, an idea coming to him. "...The person doesn't necessarily have to be dead... just someone that the Uchiha wouldn't know. At least not well."

Naruko blinked, turning to her fellow Jinchuuriki. "Like who?"

Garei looked up in thought for a moment. "What about that pale-eyed girl? Hyuuga, I believe. You should know her well enough."

Naruko's head tilted to the side. "Hinata? Why would I know her well?"

Gare stared at his 'female' friend. "...I was under the impression that you two were... an item."

Naruko's face exploded into a mad blush, rivaling that of even the mentioned Hinata. She quickly turned around, putting her hand's on her hips stubbornly. "N-No! It's not like that! Not at all! She's cute... well, really pretty-- what am I saying?! She's all quiet and dark and...weird! I don't even know her that much! All she does is stutter and blush and pass out whenever she sees me! Well, that was back in the day but--!"

Naruko turned around, her blush coming back two-fold at Garei's blank stare. "What's with that look?!" She screeched. "You're laughing at me! Aren't you! You bastard! Stop it!"

Garei only continued to stare, further infuriating the blonde before he turned around and walked off. "Come then, show me where your 'dark', 'weird', and 'very pretty' girlfriend lives."

Naruko's face took on a darker shade of red. "You jerk! Don't talk about Hinata that way!"

Garei nodded. "Of course. Only you have the right to call her pet names." He continued, a certain humor to his voice. "Though I must admit, the imagination you put into them is quite lacking."

Naruko quickly caught up with him, raising her fist as though ready to hit him, but growled when she realized that it would only set off the sand and expose them. "Arg! Stop it already!"

Garei closed his eyes. "Lacking imagination indeed. I pity the poor children you two will have. You'll probably name them after food or something just as trivial."

Vein's exploded on Naruko's face as she shook with rage. "Was that a shot at me you jerk?! I have a perfectly _good_ name! Don't start! I could just as easily throw yours in your face!"

The transformed redhead sighed, looking up at the clear blue sky. "Where, oh where did the creativeness you was so famous for go? A depressing thing indeed. The future of your children looks bleak my friend. Such a heavy burden it is that Hyuuga-san will have to carry. Tsk, tsk, tsk..."

"Goddamnit! Knock it off already!"

* * *

Kakashi stared down at the quarreling two, personally amused by their rather loud conversation but professionally staying quiet and continuing to follow them from behind. He couldn't hear much of what the two had been talking about before, but with the rise of temper came the rise of voice, and he was able to catch more snippets than before. The Hatake leaped to the next rooftop, frowning when he heard the female scream out 'Hyuuga'. Instantly, it registered in his mind that the two were indeed heading towards the Hyuuga estates, and just as soon as he lifted his hand and gave the orders, two of the three ANBU rushed ahead.

It was then that Kakashi decided to get closer, as their conversation at hand was of one of Konoha's most regal clans. From that moment onward, it was important that he hear everything that they said. A soft noise was made as he landed on the dirt ground a bit behind them, and the silver haired teen made a point to quickly transform himself into a middle aged civilian as to not be noticed.

A shadow clone still on the roof gave a nod to its main body before rushing ahead.

Using the skills of any decent shinobi, Kakashi went unseen as he stole a magazine from a stand he passed.

* * *

Hiashi Hyuuga sat calmly in the Hyuuga clan's garden. His youngest daughter, Hanabi, was wrapped in a light bundle and resting in his arms, while the other played quietly with the koi in the shallow pond just before him. A branch member sat behind him, reading off yet another document ascertaining to his wife's funeral.

"…elders begin introductory dinners--"

"Be silent." He finally snapped, making the branch member look up sharply, startled.

"But…sir--"

Hiashi shifted his arms, letting Hanabi sleep easier. "My wife, the mother of my children, has passed from this world only but a few _hours _ago. Allow me time to mourn her before you begin to harass me with a trivial search for a _replacement_." He said sharply. "I have my heirs, I will not remarry."

"Sir!"

"I will _not_ remarry." He bit out. "Leave."

The servant nodded, quickly gathering his documents and hurrying away. "Yes, mi'lord."

The moment of silence was not to last, to the clan head's dismay. "Hiashi-dono." Kakashi stated politely as he landed just in front of the addressed.

"I am afraid that now is not a good time, Kakashi-san."

The teen shook his head. "And I regret to say that I come with bad news."

Hiashi reached up with his free hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. A loud and languid sigh escaped him. "...Very well, please continue."

Kakashi nodded, returning to a standing position and pointing towards the northwest. "A little while ago, two intruders infiltrated Konoha. They've been keeping a low profile, but now they are heading here, to the Hyuuga district." The silver-haired teen seemed to sound just the slightest bit on edge when he turned towards the little girl playing by the water. Hiashi instantly knew that whatever Kakashi had to say next he would not like in the least bit. He was right. "They named young Hinata-chan... specifically."

"…What more tortures will Amaterasu give me before she finally allows me content?" The father asked himself, sighing as he stood to his feet and instantly going into the professional demeanor as a shinobi. "How much longer until they arrive? Are they a threat?" He asked sharply, voice flat and stern.

Kakashi instantly stood a bit straighter. "It is an estimated three minutes until they reach your property. As far as them being a threat goes…" He trailed off, honestly not knowing what to say.

Hiashi didn't believe for a second that Kakashi, of all people, hadn't gathered enough information on his targets to answer such a simple question. "Don't dwaddle, young man. Voice your thoughts."

"The way they move is…disturbing." He explained, lifting an arm to shrug slightly. At Hiashi's slight glare, he went into further detail. "Most ANBU don't move that silently. They give off a vibe of strength that I don't know how to explain."

There was a moment of silence before Hiashi finally gave a single curt nod. "I see." He said before turning towards the house. "Guards!"

In an instant, five ranked shinobi of the branch family were on their knees in front of him. "Yes, Hiashi-dono." They chimed together, eyes facing the ground.

Hiashi bit out the list of orders as though he had done it a thousand times before. "Guard the estates, prepare for infiltration and possible confrontation and hide the children. If the approaching intruders are from Kumo, I do _not_ want the Byakugan to fall into their hands."

"Of course." They chimed, disappearing from sight in the blink of an eye.

One stayed behind, a middle-aged female. "Hinata-sama, come along." She cooed sweetly, holding her hand out.

Hinata looked up from the koi pond momentarily, turning to her father. "Daddy?" She asked, making sure it was okay to leave with the woman.

Hiashi nodded, gently handing the infant Hanabi off to her. "Be quick, my child. Go with Hitomi-san." He said, a strained smile marking his face as the three females left the garden. When they entered the estate and left his eye, Hiashi turned to the young ANBU at his side, sighing quietly. "Kakashi…"

The teen held up a hand. "No thanks are necessary."

Hiashi inclined his head, turning and walking quickly towards the front of the estates, Kakashi following soon after. "Once again, I am in your favor."

Beneath his masks, the teen grinned. "You've got it backwards, as usual."

"Perhaps." Hiashi said, walking up to a group of branch and main family shinobi. "Status report."

A young man stepped forward, bowing before speaking. "The intruders are approaching. It is confirmed, they have specifically named Lady Hinata and, as Kakashi-san described, are…" He trailed off, looking towards one of the other shinobi for a moment, visibly nervous. "They appear to be strong, sir."

"Hiashi-dono." The mentioned clan head turned his attention to another branch shinobi as she landed next to him, Byakugan still activated. "The quick chakra examination of the two show that they each have an abnormal amount. Their coils are very mature and very strong. They've been molded and refined." She rambled, quickly giving Kakashi a bow of greeting.

"'Molded'?" The teen asked, raising an eyebrow behind his ANBU mask. "What does that mean?" He asked, turning to Hiashi.

"My apologies, Kakashi-san!" The slightly winded kunnoichi said, bowing quickly in apology before launching into a brief explanation. "It means that they have learned, practiced, and honed their chakra to a level of at least a jonin. The techniques they use are more than likely complicated, deadly and numerous."

"I see." Hiashi frowned. "Is there anything else?" He asked as he turned to her.

The woman shook her head in the negative almost desperately. "Nothing at the moment, sir!"

"Very well, I want the branch warriors in their positions. Where is Izuru?" Almost as soon as the question left the clan head's mouth, he looked up to see the enormously muscled, middle-aged man he was looking for arrive.

"Right here, Hiashi-dono." He stated politely, his darkly tanned face falling into a permanent frown.

"Good, you shall come with me." Hiashi ordered, motioning for the man to follow with his hand. Just before making his leave, Hiashi paused, looking ahead. "Kakashi-san, if at all possible--"

Kakashi leaned back, letting out a light hearted sigh. "You don't have to ask."

Hiashi gave a small smile, and nodded his head. "I see, thank you."

With that, he and the mountain of a man at his side headed towards the estates main gates.

* * *

Naruko and Garei stood outside of the Hyuuga gate, both annoyed at the nearly ridiculous amount of security. With Garei, of course, one wouldn't be able to see his ire quite as easily as the twitching blonde next to him. Even so, the dark cloud that surrounded the two was near palpable.

"...So, she is a princess." Garei stated.

Naruko twitched for the hundredth time that day. "Pretty much."

"..." Garei turned his head to the blonde, face cleverly blank. "You aim quite high."

It was as though Gaara's dark cloud was just transferred over to Naruko by a slight change of wind and a ray of light.

"Do _not_ start."

The two were thrown off balance when the gates suddenly opened, relieving none other than Hinata's father and quite possibly the most muscle adorned man in Konoha. "Good afternoon." Hiashi said, his voice neither polite nor rude.

"Oh crap…" Naruko squeaked, craning her head quite a bit to see the face of the muscle-monster thing. "H-Hello, Hyuuga-san." Garei inclined his head curtiously.

"Hello indeed." Izuru said, his voice having more of a terrifying growl to it than earlier.

Hiashi stepped forward. "Is there perhaps a reason you are standing in front of my home?"

Naruko visibly paled and would have blown her cover had Garei not chosen that moment to intervene. "Our deepest apologies, Hyuuga-san. We were only sight-seeing." He said, smiling.

Yes, smiled.

The simple action got even more of a horrified expression from the blonde than Izuru.

And Izuru was _damn_ scary.

"Then that would make you very foolish travelers." The clan head bit out, now not bothering to hide his displeasure. "I am aware that you spoke of my daughter. By name."

Garei's smile grew wider and Naruko wondered for the briefest moment if she were going to die within the next few minutes. "My friend had seen her once and simply could not stop talking about her beauty, even for a child. I work at a magazine, and have come to just take a look at the young miss. If given the chance to see her, we should only take a moment." He said, bowing lowly. Naruko stood frozen for a moment, but quickly jumped to repeat the action.

Hiashi huffed. "Is that so. Tell me more of this 'magazine'." He didn't sound like he believed them for a second, with good reason.

Garei turned to Naruko, giving her something to focus on before she ended up dispersing the transformation justu. She was instantly back in her role of a hyper, bouncing and bubbly blonde. "Oh! They're doing a really cool spread on the most successful clans heirs! Some aren't even of ninja decent! You know, just the really prosperous clans-- anyways, after I saw your daughter-- she is your daughter, right?" The two Hyuuga in front of her grew visibly annoyed. "What am I saying! Of course she is!" She laughed nervously.

Hiashi was reaching the end of his already hair-thin patience. "To the point, please."

"Oh, right, sorry!" Naruko giggled. "You see, after I saw little Hinata-chan I just couldn't help but ask around about her, and then when I heard that she was not only a member, but the _heiress_ of the legendary Hyuuga clan, I just _had _to get my buddy Garei here to feature her in the magazine! His editor said we'd never even get to see her but I figured that you never know unless you try…right?" She asked, clasping her hands in what would be a ice-meltingly cute gesture.

Unfortunately for her, Hiashi's glare was a bit _colder_ than ice. "I'm sure that if your story is true, you two would have proper identification as employees of this…magazine?"

Garei nodded, reaching into the pocket of his pants. The sand around his hand quickly shifted and transformed into a counterfeit I.D. badge. "Of course." He said, handing the perfect fake to him.

Naruko sweat-dropped in embarrassment, momentarily cursing her luck for not getting the handy, sand molding demon when she was a baby. "Well, I don't work for the magazine, but I'm pretty much with him." She mumbled, laughing nervously once again.

"…" Hiashi stared at it, looking between the badge and the two disguised intruders before him for a moment. The clan head gave a 'humph' of annoyance before handing it back to the young man. "…I am sorry, but I cannot allow you to see my daughter." He said flatly, Izuru crossing his arms in a wholly intimidating manner next to him.

Naruko blinked. "Huh? Why?" For a moment she almost thought they were going to be let in.

Hiashi shook his head once. "Her mother passed away during the night. If it were any time other than now, perhaps. But under the circumstances I must ask you two to please leave my property."

Naruko paused, standing up a little straighter. "Her mother…died?"

The questions were anything but wanted. "Yes, my wife has been sick for a very long time. The disease had finally won." He snapped out as rudely. "Now if you don't mind." He said as he turned away, nodding to Izuru once before heading back inside.

The huge man scowled.

Naruko leaped back a good ten feet. "R-Right! No means no! Right Garei?! Haha!"

Garei rolled his eyes at the blonde's actions, but nodded his head towards the gigantic Hyuuga before him. "We are very sorry to have intruded." He said politely before turning to leave.

Izuru gave a snort as he watched them go. "…"

Inside the Hyuuga compound, Kakashi was putting actual effort into not laughing as Hiashi made his way back to the teen and the shinobi on standby. "A magazine? As strong as they are?"

Hiashi closed his eyes in a futile attempt to calm his nerves. "Quite the lie, I'll admit." He grit out through clenched teeth.

Kakashi gave a light chuckle. "Though earlier... I did see the girl eat at a ramen stand. She seemed like quite the critic on the poor stand-owner."

Hiashi shot the teen a bored look.

Before Kakashi could laugh at his little joke, Izuru came stomping back up to Hiashi, face contorted oddly. "Hiashi-dono, there is a man and woman at the gates asking to speak to you." He said, reaching up to scratch the back of his head.

The clan head's glare amplified three-fold. "I thought he had long established that and sent them on their way."

Izuru shook his head. "No, these are different people."

Hiashi reached up, once again pinching the bridge of his nose as he felt the migraine starting to throb. "What do they want?"

Izuru looked away for a moment, sweating a bit.

"They say they're from a magazine."

At that, the Kakashi clone did laugh.

* * *

The real Kakashi hung back from the estates as to not bring attention to himself. He allowed himself to crack a smile about the poor luck of Hiashi for a moment as he watched the assumed 'real' magazine employees be non-too-nicely asked to leave. All the while not looking at all odd from a man 'reading' a magazine. He shifted his weight to lean lazily against a wall, staring ahead, watching.

He kept a sharp eye on the intruders, walking slowly away from the Hyuuga estates.

"Ah, sempai." Kakashi rose an eyebrow, looking to his left where he saw a young child in common clothes. "Or should I say, _father_. What a nice day it is, so close to the _Hyuuga compound_."

The jab didn't go unnoticed by the teen as he flipped a page in his magazine. "A nice day indeed, son. Run along and tell your siblings I'll be home with dinner shortly. If they're worried about mom, just tell them I've got her present and not to worry." Code, of course.

Tell your men to wait, I'll bring the intruders to the Hokage soon.

The disguised ANBU nodded, quickly running off in another direction.

Kakashi sighed and closed his magazine. Time to go to work.

* * *

"A magazine." Naruko growled. "Are you serious?"

Garei shrugged. "Your sensei was an author, correct? I would assume that you would have known something about publishers. Magazine or novel, it makes no difference."

The blonde rolled her eyes. "Jeeze, sometimes you almost sound smarter than Shikamaru…"

"Did anything we learned determine weather or not we are…?"

Naruko nodded slowly. "Yeah. Just before we made it to the Hokage tower to see you and Grandma, Hinata mentioned that it was pretty close to her mother's death anniversary. Everyone knew that her mom was, you know…" She trailed off for a moment, continuing when her friend nodded in understanding. "…But nobody ever really talked about it."

Garei crossed his arms, falling into his normal cold, stoic and logical mood. "It is not uncommon for the children of a ninja village to lose one or both parents."

"Well, either way, Hinata told me the other day that her mother died from some kind of breathing problem she's had since she was little." Naruko explained, moving her hands as she spoke. "Hinata said that not even her teammates knew about it. She just let them think what they wanted, because it was really painful to talk about."

Garei lifted a faux eyebrow, his tone sounding teasing. "Why did she mention it to you then, I wonder?"

"Be quiet would ya?!" The blonde snapped, a rosy blush creeping to her face. "…Hinata said that she felt bad that she didn't get to give her condolences or whatever a few years back and my sensei died. I didn't really feel like talking about it, but hearing her talk about her mom kinda made me feel a little better." She explained, remembering when Hinata had told her about how she grew a love of pressing flowers from watching her mother do it.

Naruko blushed a bit, reaching up to scratch the bridge of her nose.

Its not like she had grown a taste for peeking on women from watching Jiraiya.

Certainly not.

Garei turned an eye to his blonde friend. "I suddenly get the feeling that you're thinking about perverted things. Let's hope Hinata-san doesn't find out."

Naruko's hand flew to her side, blush in full force. "I said we weren't dating already!"

"Right." Garei rolled his eyes. "So what her father said would confirm our whereabouts, only…"

"…Sasuke showed up in Konoha the same day Hinata told me." She sighed, posture slumping in defeat. "…We'd have to look around a lot more to be sure."

Even Garei was letting his annoyance show. "A very taxing dilemma."

This time, Naruko rolled her eyes. "Ya _think_?"

Suddenly, he hairs on the back of Naruko's neck rose and the sand shifted against Garei's skin in the most unpleasant of ways. The two quickly turned around, eyes widening ever so slightly at the sight of none other than a short Kakashi-sensei. Garei took a step back, Naruko doing just the same as they looked around, noticing the black robed figures lurking in the shadows for the first time.

Kakashi's eye turned up with his masked smile. "Good afternoon." He said pleasantly. Soon after, his voice and posture became anything but friendly. "Lets take a walk."

"Garei..." Naruko mumbled, keeping her eyes on Kakashi while turning towards her friend.

Garei set his jaw. It wouldn't be wise to get into an altercation now. The last thing they wanted was to come off as a threat, or to reveal their power. Naruto and Gaara were ferociously powerful, that was true, but at the moment they were also still weak from the Akatsuki's supposedly failed extraction. The very last thing Gaara needed was to be knocked unconscious and to unintentionally set his demon loose on Konoha.

The best thing to do in this situation was to go peacefully. So, relaxing his posture, Garei gave a slight bow."Yes, of course." When he took a step forward and noticed that Naruko hadn't moved, the Ichibi host turned, eyes and voice stern. "Come."

"Ah, a wise man indeed." Kakashi said, edging them with his finger to follow after him as he walked towards the Hokage's tower. "So, tell me about yourselves. Names, ranks, village affiliation and purpose in Konoha?" He asked, his pleasant tune becoming more unnerving by the minute.

"Well..." Naruko began, turning towards Garei. The Suna-nin shook his head. "...We'd be perfectly willing to tell the Hokage. We won't put up a fight. We'd just like to tell him."

Garei closed his eyes, continuing to follow after his friend's future sensei. "We mean you no disrespect, Shinobi-san."

Kakashi let out a 'Hmmm...' sound, and put his hands in his pockets. "Thats all well and good, I'm glad to hear it. But, as you can guess, the Hokage is a _very_ busy man. H may not have the time to speak to you two. Are you _sure_ you can't tell me? It'll make things easier in the long run." He said with a chuckle. "You see, if you talk to me, you'll just go to jail. If you talk to the Hokage and upset him, he may have you executed. But if you wanna chance it...?"

Naruko almost let out a snort of laughter, but quickly caught himself. "...I think we'll chance it, thanks."

Kakashi shrugged, falling silent the rest of the way. Naruko and Garei looked up, slowly becoming uneasy.

Had the Hokage tower always looked so... Intimidating?

* * *

One of the first things that Gaara noticed when he walked into the Hokage's tower, was that it was much less busy than the Hokage tower that served under Tsunade. There weren't people walking around with stacks of paper, and there were about half of the personnel that she had running the building. He was acutely aware that Tsunade was instated when Konoha was under a time of stress, and had heard more rumors than he could count of her taste for alcohol. He knew that she always had quite a bit more paper work than he did, but on the other hand, he never slept. Thus, the office hours had become near twenty-four-seven. Much more time to sign papers and read reports than the other Kage.

Still, even his office was a bit more... lively.

Then again, Gaara was a healthy young man-- most days anyway. He didn't have a lot of male secretaries, and if his siblings were any source of truth, his own tower had been nicknamed the 'Tower of Gossip'.

It wasn't exactly a lie, young women did like to talk.

A lot.

It was his experience gained from listening to his employees that Gaara had a decent understanding of when a girl spoke 'too much'.

At the moment, Naruko was really the first 'girl' to ever meet that he would label as a 'motor mouth'. Honestly, she hadn't shut up for the last half hour. Her insistent voice was starting to become even more unbearable than Shukaku.

And that was _saying_ something.

Finally, Garei had reached his limit of how many times he could be asked about 'If lunch tasted good'. "Naruko." He said sharply, making Kakashi's head turn slightly. "Shut up."

The blonde sweat a bit, and closed her mouth.

"Haha, a short temper, hm? I'll be fun questioning you later." Gaara closed his eyes, enjoying the silence while it lasted. Kakashi chuckled again. "Not the greatest boyfriend, are you?" He asked, leading them up a flight of stairs.

Kakashi blinked when he heard a loud 'thunk' noise behind him. Turning around, he was confused to see the auburn haired young man's arm out, and the blonde girl groaning on the stairs. The Hatake blinked, curious why the strange intruder had clotheslined the girl.

Kakashi's eye narrowed when "Garei's" face literally melted into sand and dissapeared against his skin, leaving the paler, more terrifying face of a redhead with black rimmed seafoam eyes and a red tattoo of 'love' kanji on his forehead.

His true voice was deeper, more raspy. "Drop the disguise, now." Was all he said, bringing his arm back down to his side and taking a step forward.

Kakashi watched on as a plume of smoke erupted from the beautiful young woman, leaving a spiky headed blond teenager looking nearly the same, only male and...

A cold shiver ran down Kakashi's spine as he got a better look at the older teen's face.

"What the hell was that for? He was the one who said it, not me!"

Gaara remained silent as he stepped past Kakashi, shooting the startled young man a deadly look, shrouded in civility. "Yes, he was." Was all he said before continuing his way up the stairs.

Naruto rubbed his neck, shooting Kakashi an dirty look as he followed after his friend.

Kakashi stood there for a moment, shaken. A hand started to make its way to his mouth before he regained his composure and followed after the two enigmas.

* * *

Sarutobi exhaled a thick cloud of smoke, his old, dry lips seeming infinitively older by the firm set of his jaw. The once retired Kage turned around in his seat, looking closely at Kakashi. "Say that again, young man?"

Kakashi gave another bow, standing up easily and took a breath, repeating his earlier statement. "The two intruders from this morning are outside under the ANBU's watch. They've come peacefully, and without incident. They gave no information, saying that they wish to speak directly to you instead."

Sarutobi closed his eyes, sharply hitting the wooden pipe against the small ashtray. "Hm." He said, as though in thought. "And why, Kakashi, is it you think I would want to talk to them? Surely you are aware that I wanted them under arrest and handed to Ibiki?" He asked, not at all pleased.

Kakashi nodded, taking a deep breath. "Normally, I would gladly follow your wise order, Hokage-sama." He said, nervous, though he didn't show it.

Sarutobi nodded, packing the pipe once again. "And what makes this case so special, I wonder?" The Hokage asked, looking up at the teen sharply.

Kakashi cleared his throat. "One of them..." He trailed off, not knowing how to put it. "One of them harbors a _striking _resemblance to... to _him_."

Sarutobi paused in his ministrations. Slowly bringing his eyes once again up to Kakashi. "Define 'striking'."

"Like a _twin_, sir. ...Only, he's seventeen."

Sarutobi frowned, closing his eyes once more and slowly returning to prepping his pipe.

"Hm... Is that right..." He murmured. "What of the other one?" He asked louder, once again sharp and to the point.

Kakashi quickly answered. "He's got scary eyes and an even scarier atmosphere, but I don't recognize him. Neither do the ANBU. If the way he's talking to the... other one, is anything to go by, then he seems to be the leader of the two."

Sarutobi nodded, leaning back in his seat. "And their names?" He asked, turning around towards the window.

Kakashi cleared his throat. "They didn't provide names, they said that they would tell you." Kakashi watched the back of Sarutobi's chair, seeing the smoke rise from behind it after a moment and couldn't help but gulp after a moment. The Hokage seemed to be in a bad mood already, and now Kakashi was relaying _negotiations_ from _trespassers_ to him.

The day was quickly looking darker for the young jonin.

Finally, after a long, long silence, Sarutobi's voice was heard from behind the chair.

"Send them in."

Kakashi gave a stiff, deep bow and turned on his heal, walking towards the door and opening it. A moment later, he escorted the two trespassers in. The Hokage turned around to face them, gave a nod, and Kakashi was gone in an instant.

The first thing Sarutobi noticed, was that Kakashi wasn't lying.

The resemblance was disturbing.

"So..." The Hokage began, pausing to take a draw from his pipe. "...Your names, ranks, village affiliation and reason why you're in _my_ village."

Naruto and Gaara turned to one another, nodded, and turned back towards the village leader.

"Sabaku no Gaara, Fifth Kazekage of Suna, host of the Ichibi no Shukaku."

Naruto didn't give the Hokage a chance to recover from his shock. "Uzumaki Naruto, second named Sage of the Myoboku Toads. I am the host of the Kyuubi no Yoko. We're..." He trailed off, glancing to Gaara, unable to say the words.

Gaara gladly finished. "We are from the future."

Sarutobi stared at them.

For a very long time.

Blinked.

Then stared some more.

For a very, very long time.

Gaara wondered if it was a village habit.

"From the... _Future_... You say?"

They nodded.

Sarutobi brought the pipe to his mouth, but paused. "_Really_."

They nodded again.

He brought it fully to his mouth and took another draw, never taking his eyes off the two. "...What makes you say that?"

Naruto sweat-dropped and glanced at Gaara. "Well... We're pretty sure." The redhead shot him a glare. "Definitely sure." He corrected.

Sarutobi opened his mouth in a silent, nearly mocking 'ah'. "What proof do you have, I wonder?" He asked, leaning forward in faux curiosity.

Funny, Naruto didn't remember the old man being quite so... cynical.

It was starting to piss him off a little.

"Look, Old Man-- If I weren't who I said I was, would I be able to do this?" Naruto snapped, holding out his hand. With a sharp, small clench of his fingers, a swirling blue orb of chakra sat in his palm.

Sarutobi's jaw visibly dropped, recognizing it for what it was. "…Rasengan…" He breathed, astounded.

Naruto nodded, releasing the jutsu. "The Pervy-Sage-- I mean, my _sensei_, taught it to me. I can summon toads and like I said, I succeeded him as the second named sage of the Myoboku Toads. I'm not a dumb little kid, so don't treat me like one." Sarutobi turned his head towards Naruto with a frightening speed, the glare making the blond feel as though he had just lost a few years off of his life. "Uh… please, Lord Hokage-sama, Sir... Your majesty? Sorry."

Gaara spoke up once again, sounding completely polite, but also projecting his displeasure. "One would think that instead of acting like a disbelieving critic, you would instead calmly ask us questions regarding our identity, how we arrived here, and why. Not try to make us uncomfortable. We came peacefully, and have this village's best interest at heart. I kindly ask you to cease with your game."

The Hokage continued to stare at the young men, the pipe burning silently in his hand. "Alright," He said after a while. "I'm listening."

Gaara nodded, and started. "As I mentioned, I am the future Kazekage of Suna, and a Jinchuuriki. In our time, the Jinchuuriki are being hunted by an illegal organization named 'Akatsuki'. They are a band of S-ranked missing-nin from scattered shinobi villages and are collecting the Biju in hopes of world domination. Within the last few weeks, Naruto and I have become the only two left.

"I had come to Konoha to meet with the Godaime, to discuss the current situation and arrangements for action against Akatsuki, among other political matters. Naruto is a good friend of mine, we met at the chunin exams five years prior. I don't wish to see him captured by the Akatsuki any more than I wish myself to be. To be captured means death."

Sarutobi nodded, sighing out a thick cloud of smoke as he mulled over the information. "Akatsuki sounds like quite a problem to you then. Carry on."

Gaara did exactly that. "After the meeting with the Hokage, I left to speak with Naruto about the Akatsuki. We were attacked by them in his own home, the village was left in chaos and we were taken to their lair. Under the ritual, the Biju collected and came to us with an offer of salvation. We were to swear to "One day free them.", and in our desperation, we agreed."

Naruto nodded, continuing. "We woke up and half the place was destroyed, and the Akatsuki were gone. We didn't ask questions and just hauled ass out of there before they came back or something. We rushed back to Konoha to make sure everyone was okay and check up on our friends, but when we showed up..." He trailed off, his hand lifting to express his loss for an explanation.

Sarutobi nodded, leaning back in his seat. "...You were in the past." The old man looked up, thinking. "...Well, if all nine of the tailed demons were making a combined effort, I would not be so bold as to dismiss the possibility of this... astonishing claim you two are making." He said.

Naruto and Gaara nodded.

Sarutobi stood for the first time, slowly making his way over towards the two, eying them more carefully. Especially Naruto. "...I must admit, you look very much like young Naruto, but I'm afraid I am a very cautious old man. I will need further verification than simple words. You claim that you are Jinchuuriki, show me." He said, leaving the pipe in his mouth and crossing his arms behind his back.

Without missing a beat, Gaara closed his eyes. The room fell cold after a moment, and when he opened them again, they were the black and gold pinwheels of the Shukaku. The blue markings spread across his skin, the grains of sand on his body shifting and transforming. The small cracks in the Hokage's stone office walls became more pronounced, floating microscopic debris making their way to the redhead and collecting around his arm and left side of his face.

Sarutobi stood calmly, examining the intense killing intent with the professionalism of a scientist before raising his hand, feeling enough. "Yes, that is without a doubt the power of the Shukaku. Only once have I felt it, and just as with the Kyuubi, it is very hard to forget." He said, turning his eyes to the worried Naruto.

Gaara's hands reached up to clutch his head, his breathing rapidly increasing as he forced the transformation to reverse itself.

Naruto gulped, turning to the Hokage. "Are you sure...?" He asked, sighing when the old man gave a single nod. "Alright, don't say I didn't warn you." He mumbled, closing his eyes and leaning back on his feet, his face turned towards the ceiling.

Sarutobi noticed a shift in temperature; going from cold, to warm, then hot. The air around the young blond started to shift and move with the wind of the swirling, red chakra that was quickly growing around him.

His hair became wilder, nails and teeth longer, sharper. The whisker-like marks on his face became more obvious. There was a familiar sense of dread, malice... the killing intent made it hard to breath. Without physical reason, Sarutobi's blood rushed, he started to sweat. He started to remember horrible, painful things from his long life.

The fear came crashing down on him with an amplified force when the boy opened his eyes. The calm, deep cerulean gone, replaced by a glowing, blood-red shade that made even Sarutobi feel as though he were meat in the eyes of a hungry, fanged beast. The teen opened his mouth, the fangs biting into his lips as he spoke, the wounds just as quickly healing. "Can I stop now?" He asked, feeling uncomfortable with the sudden urges to run, stretch his claws and kill.

The taste of his blood in his mouth didn't help any.

Sarutobi nodded, turning away and heading back to his chair.

He set his pipe down, not planning on smoking anything for a long, long time. "Yes... please regain yourself."

Naruto closed his eyes, and in almost an instant, the blue in his eyes was back. "Please don't ask me to do that again... It's..."

Gaara chose that moment to return to the conversation, one eye closed and sweat dripping down his temples. His arm clutched his head, trying to ease the migraine. "...It's very strenuous on one's sanity." He said, mentally telling the loud raccoon to stuff it.

"I can understand." The Hokage said, falling silent for a moment. "Now... I won't say that I believe you," Sarutobi raised his hand when he saw Naruto's jaw drop. "...but I will tell you that your story does seem much more plausible."

Gaara set his jaw, dropping his arm to rest at his side. "...That is all we can hope for, after all."

Sarutobi nodded, pleased with the response. "Proving what little you have, I will ask you for further verification." He said, knitting his fingers together, staring at them. "I will ask you two to allow yourselves to be peacefully escorted to the torture and interrogation unit. There, you will be held and questioned, and I will see you again once I am given the results of our specialists' finds. Is this a problem?" He asked, looking at them sharply.

This time, Gaara was the one who spoke up. "I'm afraid I will have to voice my concerns."

Sarutobi lifted his eyebrow. "So voice them."

Gaara frowned, not in the most pleasant of moods after his little demonstration. "I am Kazekage, more so, I am from another village. I hold secrets that I cannot share. I want to verify my statements just as much as you want to know what is going on, but I must digress." He began, closing his eyes and inclining his head a bit. "I am aware of the Yamanaka clan. If I am not mistaken, they work closely with your countries torture and interrogation unit. I have seen a few of the techniques first hand, and I am keenly aware of that clan's ability to not only enter one's mind, but explore it."

Naruto bit his lip, realizing the sudden position Gaara was in. "...And worse is that whenever Ino does that mind thing, she knocks whoever she's putting her jutsu on out... You can't afford to sleep, too much shit hits the fan if you do." He mumbled, suddenly nervous.

Sarutobi closed his eyes, frowning. "I am aware of your trepidation, and if what you tell me is true, then I can completely understand your feelings. I would not want to expose my country to the whims of any other Kage either. However," Sarutobi said, lifting his head more. "I am a man of my word, if you agree to this interrogation and you are in fact the future Kazekage, and your countries secrets are revealed, then I will swear them to secrecy and never use them against you. Should any of the secrets in question leak, I will personally hand you the source and let you do with him what you will.

"Letting me 'Do what I will.' to whomever, if ever there is a leak will do nothing to fix the problem should one arise."

Naruto leaned his weight to one foot, sighing. "Can't you two like... compromise or something? There's gotta be another way to check our story other than reading our minds..." At Sarutobi's sharp, suspicious glare, Naruto quickly rose his hands. "I'm not pulling anything funny! I swear! I'm just asking if there were any alternatives! Like-- Grandma Tsunade! Yeah! Her!"

At the silence of the two Kage, Naruto took it as his cue to continue. "Well, she's like, a super awesome medical ninja, right? She's gotta be able to tell that we're who we say we are right? Like... um... what do you call it...?" He mumbled, throwing his head back and trying to remember. "Ugh... Pervy-Sage was telling me about it once when some crazy lady tried to pin a kid on him when he first got rich..."

In almost perfect unison, Sarutobi and Gaara's eyes widened in understanding. "You mean a DNA test?" Gaara asked, just making sure. When Naruto snapped his fingers and nodded, the two turned to Sarutobi, both expectant on his answer.

He looked thoughtful. "...While that would be a much better 'compromise' as Naruto here said, as it stands we would only have young-Naruto's blood to make a comparison with. I'm afraid, Gaara-san, that if you are truly from Suna-- and of the royal family, then acquiring your younger self's DNA would be quite hard."

Naruto and Sarutobi turned to Gaara, who had remained silent through Sarutobi's unhopeful explanation. The teen closed his eyes, letting out a sigh. "It wouldn't be hard at all. DNA testing is normally used for determining an unidentified body or to verify the origin of a child. You would need, at the least, someone I am related to-- correct?"

Sarutobi nodded, leaning back in his seat. "You sound as though you have an idea on how to get your family here, in Konoha."

Gaara closed his eyes. "I do."

* * *

Sorry, I changed the end of this chapter. D:

It's the last change I'll be manking, I **_swear_**.


	3. Schemers and Their Roundabout Gambits

**Aniki**

Chapter Three:

**Schemers and Their Roundabout Gambits**

I Don't Own Naruto

**AN1:** I recommend you go back and read the last few paragraphs of chapter two, as I've changed it. That will be the LAST change I make to already posted chapters of Aniki. I _**swear.**_

**AN2:** In the more normal trend of fanfiction, authors tend to have sentences in italics, such as _"This"_ as thinking. I, personally, find it annoying and absolutely refuse to do that. The same goes for **"Demons Talking" **in bold. To me, it simply makes a story seem less realistic. If I have the demons talking in Aniki at all, it will be as it was in Chapter One, under normal font and format while Naruto and Gaara (or the other Jinchuuriki) are inside their own minds. This doesn't mean that I won't have whole sentences in Italics though. If you see them-- which you will, especially in this chapter, it will just be a flashback.

* * *

"You requested to meet me, Kazekage-sama?" Yashamaru asked as he bowed respectfully before his leader. Even if he was the brother-in-law of the royal family, his forehead was still to be touching the ground before he spoke.

_"It will be almost painfully easy to have my mother's brother arrive here, assuming he is still alive." _

"All missions I've given you are canceled."

Yashamaru's eyes turned to the bandage on his middle finger for a brief moment. "May I be so bold as to ask why, sir?"

Behind his screen, the Kazekage nodded his head, his veil shifting slightly with the movement. "I've received notice from the Hokage that he would like to strengthen the ties between us, and by doing so, he has invited you and your team to stay at Konoha to exchange medical techniques for one week. This is a great opportunity for us, you realize."

"_He is the head commanding officer of all the medical unit fractions in all of Suna."_

Yashamaru lifted his head and nodded, eyes wide in shock. "It's an _amazing_ opportunity, sir! Konoha is world known for having the most advanced medi--"

"You misunderstand." The Kazekage said, cutting the younger man off. "This is an opportunity for you to infiltrate Konoha and learn as many secrets as you can. You will take Kankuro and the beast with you, and as they are 'sight seeing' you shall accompany them-- learn as much of the village as you can, especially their ninja clans and if you can, their academy."

"_Knowing my father, he will be seduced by the time allowed."_

Yashamaru sat up a bit straighter, his face both worried and confused. "Sir, it is dangerous to take the sons of the royal family so far--"

"Dangerous or not, it is your mission!" The Kazekage snapped impatiently.

Yashamaru quickly lowered his head again. "Yes, sir."

The impatient village leader remained silent for a moment, his head turning towards one of the windows for a moment, as though he were thinking. "Kankuro is to succeed me, and this will be a chance for him to learn more of international politics and procedure. I will have Temari stay here, in the unlikely event that something goes wrong." He said slowly, nodding his head once and returning to look at his brother-in-law.

The Kazekage remained unmoving behind his thin screen for a long moment. "The Hokage has stated in his message that your team shall stay for a week." He reminded. "You will stay there the entire term, learn as much as you can and if by that time you feel you have not learned enough, create a reason to stay."

Yashamaru nodded his head, accepting his orders. "And what if I learn something of absolute importance?"

The veiled man waved his hand dismissively. "Keep it to yourself. My heir will be with you, I do not want you to compromise his safety by sending a message. Konoha will be on guard while you are there, remember that."

Yashamaru bowed again. "Yes, sir."

"_He will most likely send my uncle, Kankuro and my younger self. When they arrive, you will have a chance to gather genetic samples of three members of the royal family."_

* * *

"_It will take a while for them to arrive. Between then and now, we will stay where ever it is you feel fit."_

Naruto and Gaara observed with interest the old barracks that they would call home for the next half-month or so. Though it was clean, the two story building was noticeably empty and abandoned. It held an air not unlike that of a ghost-town, and the moment Gaara let those words out of his mouth, he regretted them.

Apparently, Naruto didn't like ghosts. "Well, ghosts are really creepy and this building is practically screaming "Haunted!" and the guard has like, no emotions-- he could be a ghost too you know--"

Gaara rolled his eyes. "There are no such things as ghosts. You are acting like a child."

The guard ignored them, pulling out a mass of keys as the small group reached the end of the stairs leading to the second and final floor of the building. Where as the first floor consisted of a mess hall and offices, the second floor was where the actual living quarters and bathroom were.

The guard stopped and held his keys out, pointing to a large, wooden double door. "This is the bathroom. It has a public shower and open stalls. There is soap and paper, so you two should be able to get by for now." He said, turning to fully face the boys. "With such short notice of you two coming here, the water won't be turned on until tonight. So, unless you absolutely have to use the facilities, I suggest you hold it."

The guard used his keys, unlocking the bathroom and showers to show them to the 'guests'. "While you two are just here waiting for some information, and not technically prisoners, you will still have to spend almost your entire stay in your rooms, an should you have to use the bathroom, just alert one of the guards and you'll be escorted."

Naruto, who had apparently been reaffirmed that there were no ghosts around, took a step forward, pulling on the hem of his grimy, open jacket. "Our clothes are pretty dirty, what do we do when I want to wash them?" He asked, silently praying that the guard wouldn't tell him to tough it out.

Thankfully, the guard seemed to have a heart. "Like I said, just let the guards know when you want to use the bathroom. There's soap." He said as he closed the bathroom doors, though not locking them. "Let's continue to your rooms." He continued, leading them further down the hall.

There were two more guards standing outside of another large set of double doors, one reading a magazine of some sort and another simply leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. They turned towards the emotionless escort with the keys, and were at once at attention. The guard nodded, turning to show Naruto and Gaara. "These are the guests." He said, watching as Naruto and Gaara gave a wave of the hand and a nod in greeting.

"Would I be overstepping my bounds to ask for a novel or some other form of publication to keep myself busy with?" Gaara asked, turning for the first time to address the guards.

One used his magazine to point towards the closed double doors that were the barracks first sleeping area. "The Hokage left a note to have some ready. There's a small library in there."

Naruto grinned, leaning a bit to try and see inside the room. "Is there anything in there for me?" He asked, wondering if perhaps there were scrolls on jutsu or maybe a game table.

The guard huffed. "Books." He said as he opened his magazine again. "Lots of 'em."

Naruto's shoulder sank a bit as they were let into the large room.

* * *

On their eighth day in the barracks, as the sun started to set, Naruto turned towards the future Kazekage with a serious look on his face."Gaara..." Naruto called, staring down at his messy cot.

The redhead turn his eyes away from his book, silently telling the blond to continue.

Naruto glanced up for a moment, then turned away, resting his hands on his hips. "I think we should try and save Sasuke." He rushed. "Look, I know you don't wanna go for it but--"

"I agree with you." Gaara said as he lazily turned back to his book.

Naruto paused, eyes widening. He honestly didn't think it would be that easy to convince his friend. "But wouldn't that be changing...?" He trailed off, gesturing around the room and towards one of the windows, where the Hokage Monument could easily be seen.

Gaara nodded his head, eyes never leaving his novel's pages. "The demons' one and only demand when sending us back was to 'free them'. To do so would be drastically changing things." He reminded, eyes quickly passing over the many words. "It is suggested that not only would our actions be able to reset history, but it will not destroy the universe, as some science-fiction horror stories would lead one to believe. Saving the Uchiha should be of little consequence." The Kazekage explained, waving one of his hands dismissively.

Naruto, now, looked entirely interested as he moved to sit down on his poor excuse of a bed. "How are we going to do it? Once the Hokage finds out about Sasuke he's gonna want to know everything else, and once he finds out about Orochimaru, he'll focus on him. We might not even be allowed to try to save Sasuke."

"It's simple, really." Gaara said as he nonchalantly turned one of the book's pages. "We don't try to save Sasuke, we try to save The Uchiha Clan as a whole."

Naruto huffed. "But how would we get permission?"

"Simply make it seem like it was his idea." The redhead said, noting the detail of an illustration in one of the book's final pages. "If he gives the order, instead of us asking for it, we will have more time and resources to work with."

Gaara closed the novel with a snap. "We may even be able to unite you with your younger self." He said, turning to glance at Naruto once again. At Naruto's surprised face, the redhead continued. "You keep staring in the direction of your home. It is easy to tell that you are worried about him, and you wish to see him." He explained, standing and walking over to the shelf of books. There was a considerable dent in the amount he hadn't read since his arrival.

Naruto cleared his throat, glancing off to the side in embarrassment for having been busted on his thoughts of late. "Well... yeah, but, there's no way he'll allow that." He said, referring to the Hokage.

Gaara selected a new book, this one almost twice as long as the last. "Oh, ye of little faith." He quipped, returning to his seat on one of the far cots. He glanced straight ahead to one of the windows, the moon starting to make its climb over the tree-topped mountain.

Naruto grinned, leaning forward a bit. "You've got a plan, don't you?" He asked, the twinkle of mischief returning to his eye for the first time since their impromptu return to the past.

Gaara nodded as he opened the book-- the sliver of a serious mood between the boys demolished by Naruto's laughter once he read the impossibly large novel's title.

"'_101 Ways to Get the Girl'_?!" Naruto wheezed, actually saying the name aloud sending him into another fit of laughter. "W-why the hell are you reading _that_?!" He cried, holding his sides.

Gaara lazily turned the book to the side, observing it's cover. "I thought perhaps it would allow me to give you tips for when you decided to ride off into the sunset with your Hyuuga Princess," He replied slyly, returning to the book.

Naruto's laughter was brought to a sharp end when his giggling led him to fall off the cot.

* * *

"_When the Suna medics and the children arrive, it will be best to have an elite and observant shinobi that is not threatening in both personality and appearance to act as their guide."_

"Hello! Welcome to Konohagakure! I will be your guide while you are here!" Kakashi said, single eye turned up in a pleasant arc that showed that he was smiling beneath his mask. Gaara nodded politely, curious about the leaf-nin. The others did much the same, in a more confidant fashion.

Yashamaru smiled, stepping forward. "My name is Yashamaru, I am the leader of this group and unfortunately will be acting as a translator, and am these boy's uncle. They're the Kazekage's sons, he felt it would have been a great..."

At this point, Kankuro tuned his uncle out, turning once again to his brother. The boy was currently looking around the huge village, fascinated, no doubt, by how much wood there was. The houses and buildings looked completely different then Suna's, and even Kankuro had to admit that the sight of all the color was quite a pleasant surprise.

"Who are they?" Gaara asked, pointing straight ahead to the mountains. Kakashi turned his head around, lazily glancing at the subject of the boy's inquiry.

He chuckled, turning back to the group. "That's the Hokage Monument. In Konoha, we honor our Hokage by having their faces carved into that mountain side, so they can forever watch over their village and it's people." All of the Suna-nin, not just the children, seemed to have their curiosity piqued by the explanation.

Kakashi chuckled again, holding his arms out a bit. "Well, you all look hungry and I know a great breakfast shop just near here, let's hurry and get these kids fed, shall we?" He asked, turning and leading the group away from the village gates. Yashamaru quickly translated for the four other members of his team, and smiled to the boys, ushering them along to follow after the young, silver-haired shinobi guiding them.

After a few minutes, Yashamaru's eyes widened with an idea. "Hatake-san, would you be so kind as to have conversation with the boys? They've been learning this countries language and practicing with a native would be a great help." He asked politely, bowing a bit as they walked.

The teen smiled beneath his mask. "Of course."

* * *

Naruto yawned as he and Gaara were led out of the barracks by a new guard, the two on their way to the hospital to have their blood taken for the tests. Naruto was happy to finally have some fresh air, getting a bit light headed after taking a deep breath. Gaara shook his head at his friend's antics, silently just as revealed to be able to breath without the overpowering scent of dust.

For lack of anything else to do, Naruto decided to start conversation while on their way down the empty morning street. "Seriously, I just bought these and look at 'em!" He grouched, pointing out every fray and patch of dirt on his semi-clean clothes. The blond had been able to wash them once in the barracks by use of a shower and bar of soap, and though they didn't reek of sweat and dirt, they still desperately needed detergent.

Gaara went unnoticed as he rolled his eyes. "At least you still have your own clothes." He reminded, gesturing lazily to the tan tunic and dark brown trousers borrowed from Grass Country.

Naruto stuck his nose in the air. "What you have on now is way better than that dress you had before."

Gaara restrained himself from using his sand to trip the blond while in the company of their ever watchful escort. "_Robes_ are not a _dress_."

"Yeah, and Kakashi wears a neon yellow mini-skirt."

Their escort laughed out loud at Naruto's newest quick-wit rebuttal. "We're a little early, but we're here." He said, opening the hospital's front doors and taking the lead. He quickly signed them in and led the two down the corridors to one of the clinic rooms.

The door opened just as the shinobi reached out, revealing a subtly irate nurse and a sniffling young blond boy, rubbing a new bandage on his arm.

Naruto froze in his tracks, jaw going a bit slack as the boy scampered off after the nurse without giving them a glance. His eyes watched him go, face a few shades paler than normal. "Was that...?" He trailed off, swallowing sharply.

Gaara simply put a hand on his friend's shoulder, urging him inside the room.

"Che... we should ask for a new room. This one's probably cursed now." The shinobi grumbled, huffing as he fell into the extra seat near the counter top.

Naruto grit his teeth at the comment, fist clenched and ready to break the newly designated bastard's face at twenty different angles, but was deterred by Gaara's menacing glare and the door opening again, a new nurse with two white kits in her hands and looking rushed. "Hello, I'll be doing your blood-work today. I'll just need your names and for you to open your mouths." She said, pulling a pen out of her pocket.

"Sabaku." Gaara answered boredly, watching as she scribbled the characters down and opened the plastic contraption in her hand. With a simple swab of the inside of his cheek, the nurse closed the container and moved onto Naruto.

Name?" She asked, pen ready.

Naruto shot the shinobi a nasty look. "Uzumaki." He bit out.

The nurse paused for a moment, but quickly wrote the name down and had him swabbed in less than a minute. The shinobi that was their guide looked like he was about to have a stroke now that he got a good look at the blond's face.

Naruto sneered at him. "If you ever get 'cursed' it'll be because of your own dip-shit mouth." He snapped, ignoring the nurse as she left.

The shinobi didn't find the blond's words quite as funny this time.

* * *

"I hope you all had a nice breakfast?" Sarutobi asked, smiling as he approached the guests from Suna in the medical library, a group of Konoha medics surrounding them.

Yashamaru lifted his head, smiling and bowing to the village leader. "Yes, Konoha's food is quite delicious." He said, patting his stomach to further express his gratitude.

Sarutobi nodded. "And how are the boys? Bored out of their minds, I would imagine." He chuckled, seeing two small heads of red and brown hair just behind one of the desks.

Yashamaru sighed with a waning smile. "They are very bored, but it can't be helped. They are to stay with us and we're here for important business. They haven't the slightest interest in medical ninjutsu." The uncle laughed, scratching his head.

"I would imagine so." The Hokage nodded. "When my sons were their ages, all they wanted to learn were the big, flashy jutsu--"

Sarutobi was cut off as a Nurse walked up to him. "Hokage-sama, we've got the tests back."

Yashamaru looked curious for a moment, and Sarutobi sighed languidly. "Excuse me, I'm afraid I have to listen to the doctors tell me to quit my nicotine habits once again." He chuckled, smiling at the Suna shinobi as he left.

Two floors higher, and behind locked doors, Sarutobi stood in a clean white room, the teenage Naruto and Gaara sitting off to the side. The doctor cleared her throat, grabbing all of their attention. "As you know, Hokage-sama, you asked for DNA tests to be done this morning, an Absolute Priority Rush put on them. From the blood we took from Uzumaki Naruto, and the cheek swab from Uzumaki-san here a few hours ago, the tests have come back..." The doctor shook her head. "They're a _perfect_ match."

Naruto snorted. "Of course."

Sarutobi nodded his head, pulse a bit quick. "As expected." He said, all kinds of thoughts and questions running through his head. "And of the next test?" He asked.

The nurse nodded. "From the cups taken from their breakfasts, we've determined that Sabaku-san here is the nephew of Yashamaru-san, the brother of Sabaku no Kankuro, and a _perfect_ DNA match to Sabaku no Gaara. At first, we thought it was a mistake, and so we retested everything to be sure..." She trailed off, shaking her head in disbelief. "You realize that this is impossible, right, Hokage-sama? These results say that these two right here, genetically, _are_ those two little _children_!"

Gaara closed his eyes. "Yes, that was the purpose of the test."

Sarutobi cleared his throat, gently taking the results from the nurse. "You are hereby sworn to secrecy of these results. To leak this information will be seen as an act of treason. Do you understand?" He asked, listing off the normal order given to shinobi.

The nurse sighed, nodding. "Of course, Hokage-sama."

Sarutobi nodded, slipping the papers back into the manila envelope and carefully placing them in his robes. "Boys, if you would follow me." He said, watching as they stood at attention. "We have much to talk about."

The nurse put her hands on her hips and huffed as she watched them go. "Figures. The most interesting medical oddity of the decade and I get sworn to secrecy."

* * *

"_You've got a plan, don't you?"_

"Boys..." Sarutobi sighed, voice holding an impatient tone. "You have valuable information that will aid all of Konoha, why don't you tell me?" He asked, carefully watching the two as they sat stiffly in their seats just opposite of his desk.

_"When the Hokage is left without a reasonable doubt that we are who we claim, he will begin to ask about future events."_

Gaara shook his head again. "To tell you would eventually change history, and if we were to decide to change anything, then telling you now would forever throw off what we remember, making all of our knowledge useless." He explained, eyes holding the Hokage's even stare.

Naruto chewed on his lip, arms crossed as he thought. "Well... if we change that one thing... then you-know-who won't come here and brainwash my teammate. That would save everyone a lot of headaches..." Naruto said, turning to Gaara as he finished his thought. The icy, glare of promised bloody death that Gaara was giving him actually made Naruto squeak.

_"You will drop hints about the massacre and Orochimaru, try to be as vague as possible."_

"There is little guarantee to that." The redhead bit out. "If not your friend, then he would go after someone else with the same ability, and should he succeed, then we would have to deal with an even more powerful menace that neither you, nor your fifth Hokage or even your sensei could kill."

_"In turn, I will start an argument against it."_

Sarutobi remained silent, quietly listening to them as he jotted down the vague notes.

Naruto held his hands up, trying to express his point. "But if we do try to fix it, and we succeed, then think about all the people we'd save, how much stronger Konoha will be when Akatsuki rolls around, and--" The blond quickly bit his tongue, cutting himself off.

At this, Sarutobi rose an eyebrow. "Akatsuki? The group after your...?" The old man trailed off, gesturing towards their stomachs.

Gaara sighed, but nodded. "Yes. They do not make a move on me until nearly ten years from now, Naruto was sooner, if I'm not mistaken."

Naruto nodded. "I was twelve when they went after me the first time." He explained, rolling his eyes in an upward motion, showing that he was trying to remember.

Sarutobi leaned back in his seat, taking in the information. "Would you boys like to hear what I think?" The teens paused, watching the Hokage carefully. "I think that a large population of this village will soon be killed. Perhaps a large clan with a unique blood trait such as the Hyuuga or Uchiha."

_"If it goes well, the Hokage will, to an extent, guess what we are talking about."_

Naruto and Gaara's eyes flew open at the Hokage's observations, shocked silent and listening as he continued. "I think that there will be few survivors, someone in your age class that you would be friends with. I think that later, years from now, someone will go after this survivor and use some form of mental ignition to get him to run off with this enemy. I think that this enemy will have been incredibly powerful if a Hokage and a Sannin could not overpower him, and I think that this enemy will have a great knowledge of Konoha if he is able to get close enough to this friend of yours enough to plant the seeds that would lead to your friend eventually leaving with the enemy."

Sarutobi set his pen down. "I think the 'enemy' is Orochimaru, and that this 'friend' is Uchiha Sasuke."

"How...?" Naruto trailed off.

Even Gaara was at a loss. "How could you determine so much from so little...?"

Sarutobi huffed. "I've been a Kage for a long time. Furthermore, Orochimaru is the only one as strong as you've hinted, and as it stands with the Uchiha now..."

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "What about the Uchiha?" He asked sharply.

Sarutobi sighed. "Fugaku, the head of the Uchiha clan, has been... odd. He seems antsy, angry and yet worried at the same time. Nervous, if you will. I have had worries that perhaps he and his clan is planning something, and if I am right, it is not something good."

At this, Naruto and Gaara looked confused. "Sasuke's father?" The blond asked.

Sarutobi nodded. "He also has another son, Itachi. A very fine shinobi." Sarutobi noticed Naruto's fist and jaw clench at the elder son's name, and kept his thoughts to himself. "I have asked him to keep an eye on his father, as I am growing a bit worried for the man's health as well. All clan leaders suffer from stress, and I would not like to think that I am assuming the worst of the man if it is in fact that he is in trouble, but unable to come to me about it." He explained, rolling hid hands as he spoke.

"You have assumed correctly, Hokage-sama." Gaara suddenly said, catching Naruto's immediate attention. "The Uchiha clan will be completely wiped out save for Uchiha Sasuke and Uchiha Itachi. In our time, it was Itachi who had killed the clan, and had run off later, telling Sasuke to one day kill him when he is strong enough."

_"If he does not guess everything, we will confess the rest."_

Naruto rubbed his forehead, voice almost a grumble. "Sasuke pretty much was always obsessed with getting stronger and using his Sharingan and all that. Kakashi-sensei, me and Sakura always tried to be there for him when we actually found out _why_ Sasuke was such an asshole, but Orochimaru put this cursemark thing on him, and it wasn't much later after that, that Sasuke ran off and betrayed everyone to go with Orochimaru." The blond explained, sighing and leaning back in his seat.

Sarutobi frowned.

A village leader never liked to hear about one of his citizens being disloyal.

Gaara continued after Naruto. "I had received reports that Uchiha Sasuke had killed Orochimaru over four years later, then six months later, killed his brother." Sarutobi almost had to remind himself for a moment that the young man in front of him was a Kazekage, and thus, would have quickly gotten that sort of information to update his subordinates' bingo-books.

Naruto turned his eyes away, glancing out one of the large windows of the office. "I was there when we found Itachi's body... we had missed Sasuke by seconds... then..." He trailed off, his voice heavy.

Sarutobi closed his eyes, both thinking that he understood why Naruto had reacted so strangely when he had mentioned the Uchiha heir earlier, and truly sad that such a lively boy had to discover such a sight.

Gaara cleared his throat, once again reclaiming the attention of the room's occupants. "When we were captured by Akatsuki, Sasuke was with them."

Sarutobi sat silently for a moment, mulling over the depressing information. "The story follows a believable turn of events, until it's end. Why would Sasuke want to join...?" The Old Man's thoughts were interrupted by the blond Jinchuuriki before him.

"We don't know, but I'm telling you, _something_ had to have happened. There's _no_ way that Sasuke would do something like that without a reason." The shear conviction and determination in his eyes almost had the Hokage convinced for a moment.

"Which is where I disagree." Gaara, too, had conviction in his eyes-- though no-where near as pleasant as Naruto's amateur belief in his old teammate.

The blond rounded on him, fist clenching without a thought. "_What?!_ Why you--!"

Sarutobi held a hand up, silencing the Konoha-born time-traveler. "Voice your thoughts." He said, rolling the hand in Gaara's direction to get him to continue.

The redhead nodded. "Uchiha Sasuke was a psychologically and emotionally damaged individual. He had a superiority complex, little regard for the feelings or wellbeing of other's around him, and wasn't above condemning himself as long as it meant he would gain strength. While I agree with Naruto that there is a 'reason' why Sasuke would join with Akatsuki, I believe that the 'reason' was simply that he found the organization to be the best way to destroy those left he felt would be in the way of his goal of absolute power. The Biju, the Five Nations, then, Akatsuki themselves." He finished, shooting Naruto a harsh look for a moment.

The blond only threw one back twice as nasty. "Are you seriously trying to feed me the shit that he was on the warpath to taking over the _world_?!" Naruto screeched. "Sasuke's crazy but he's not _insane,_ you jackass!"

_"We will start to argue about Sasuke's later motives. Be as venomous and angry as you see fit, I will do the same."_

Gaara had seemed to loose a bit of his control over his temper, raising his voice for the first time. "You are blinded by your sense of a fraternal bond with him, and if you would be so wise as to open your eyes--"

Naruto cut him off, raising out of his chair a bit as he started to scream back. "--The desert heat must've scrambled your brains, you dumbass! Why the hell would he want to take over the world when that would mean that he actually _gave_ a shit about it in the _first place_! He doesn't care about anything and _you_ just _said_ that!" He shouted, almost fully out of his chair.

Gaara shook his head, voice continuing to rise as he spoke. "The only thing he cares about is his quest for power. Obliterating the nations would be a _clear_ testimonial to it, and would solidify his delusion of complete dominance of all obstacles!"

Naruto grit his teeth, fists clenched and ready to swing. "What the fuck would you know?! You fought him once-- after he had that damn curse on him! You have no idea what he's really like! You--"

"Boys!" Sarutobi barked, slamming his hands down on his desk and instantly being met with silence. "Sit down!" He ordered, watching as Naruto flew back into his seat.

The old man leaned forward, hands smacking his desk again as he spoke. "I think we've made it _quite_ clear that you two have _incredibly_ different ideas of what Sasuke is doing in Akatsuki, but you two _fail_ to see the point." He snapped, calming down for a moment as a look of thought rushed over Naruto's face, only to go back to rage a moment later.

"What point?! He's not making any!" The orange-clad sage snarled, using both of his arms to point rudely at the redhead.

Gaara huffed. "Quite the opposite, I assure you." He said, adjusting his shirt and remaining poise.

"Sasuke was 'damaged' when his brother killed the clan, correct?" Saruto said as he shook his head in disbelief of the boy's bickering. "Stop that from happening, and this..._misled _Sasuke you two know of will never exist." He explained, shooting them both disapproving looks.

_"We just need him to tell us to save the Uchiha."_

Naruto blinked. "Are you--?"

The Third nodded his head, leaning back in his seat. "Yes, I am giving you two a mission. It's simple, and hopefully you two can work together on it long enough to get it _done_." He snapped, looking at them both sternly. "Prevent the Uchiha Clan's destruction by any means necessary. You two are to report to me with and findings you make, such as Uchiha Itachi's reasons for _wanting_ to kill his entire family." He ordered, finalizing it.

_"He will think it was all his idea, and we will be set."_

Gaara looked confused. "Why not simply incarcerate or kill Uchiha Itachi?"

The look Naruto sent the Hokage said that the blond had the same idea.

"As I said earlier, Fugaku is the one acting strange. Find out why. When you do, I am sure you will find out your Itachi's reasons." The Hokage explained slowly, making sure they heard him. "Itachi is also the heir to the clan, I do not want to start a _war_ against the Uchiha because I ordered him locked away or executed for a 'bad feeling'."

Naruto sat back, wincing at the thought of having to go against and entire clan's worth of fighters like Sasuke and Itachi.

Gathering information sounded like a good idea, now that he thought about it.

There would be no jumping the gun on this mission.

Certainly not.

"If we fail?" He asked quietly, realizing a little too late how stupid the question sounded.

Sarutobi shook his head and let out a breath of laughter. "I think I don't need to tell you what would happen, you've been _quite_ happy to act like fools and mindlessly argue about it in front of me for the last ten minutes."

Naruto's eyes widened, as though he just remembered something of vital importance. "The massacre doesn't even happen for another five months! What the hell are we going to do for so long? We don't even know where we're-- _I _am going to sleep!" He said, ignoring the glare Gaara was sure to be giving him.

Sarutobi held his hands up, silencing the more rambunctious of the boys. "Quite lucky for you then, that I've arranged an apartment for you two. You will share it, a two bedroom in the western suburb district." he said, lifting his arms higher and silencing them when they both seemed to simultaneously take a breath to begin retaliating against his wishes. "You will _not_ complain, you will _not_ fight and you _will_ stay there. Gaara-san, I hate to assume your allegiance at the moment, but I will need it if you will be on this mission, and I feel that there is little more I can do that to _order_ you two out of my office and to go home." He said, bowing his head a bit towards the redhead.

Gaara simply set his jaw and nodded as well.

"One more thing." The Hokage said, watching them pause as they stood. His eyes hardened, turning to give them both stern looks. "Stay away from your younger selves." He ordered, particularly towards Naruto.

_"What about getting closer to my brat-self?"_

"Why?" The blond asked, fully climbing out of his seat. "I already saw mine today." He shrugged.

Sarutobi frowned. "Where?"

Naruto tilted his head a bit, trying to remember the details. "Hospital, he had just had his blood taken, I think."

"Did he see you?" The Hokage asked sharply.

Naruto shook his head. "No, I don't think so."

"Good, keep it that way." Sarutobi ordered, reaching into one of his desk drawers and handing the blond a small manila folder. Naruto immediately noticed the feeling of shaped metal, and recognized it as most likely the keys to his and Gaara's apartment.

The Hokage continued, his voice stern, yet holding more emotion than before. "It would not be wise for you to enter his life now, and get his hopes up about the chances of a family. You two are looking for a way back to your own time, and quite frankly, whenever you do manage to get home, be it tomorrow or ten years from now, I do not want him to be heartbroken."

Naruto sighed, eyes turning to the floor for a brief moment. "With all do respect, sir..." He trailed off, lifting his head towards his leader. "I don't think I'll be able to follow that rule." He said quietly.

Sarutobi shot him a glare that told him to leave the subject alone or face consequences.

Naruto, of course, ignored it. "Do you have any idea what I would've given, how much I wanted a family when I was a kid?" He asked.

The pain in the boy's eyes was the only thing that staved off the Hokage's temper. "Yes, that is exactly why I do not want you to see him." He explained quietly.

Gaara let the two stare at each other for a moment, then stepped forward, a single hand raised to catch the other Kage's attention. "Sarutobi-san, I believe that in little Naruto's case, it might be wise to have them meet." He said, instantly having the eyes of the two Konoha shinobi on him. "You cannot deny that they look alike, and that he's alone-- but with the mission you've just given us, we may be able to use him to get closer to the Uchiha." He explained, shrugging one of his shoulders slightly.

_"I will simply throw out an idea on the spot revolving around him being a pawn in getting closer to Sasuke, and then, the rest of the Uchiha."_

Naruto looked somewhere between confused and utterly pissed. "Use me? Who the hell is it you think you're talking about?!" He demanded, taking a threatening step towards the redhead.

_"That's too dangerous."_

Sarutobi sighed. "Elaborate." He ordered, once again staving off the blond's temper for the time being.

"Sasuke." Gaara said simply. "We can use little Naruto to get closer to Sasuke, then, in turn, Itachi and Fugaku. Five months is ample time to solidify a friendship between the boys, and when that happens, we will have much more opportunity to access the Uchiha and learn what we need to." He explained, finding no fault in the suggestion.

"Ya know, Gaara, that's actually not a bad idea." Naruto said, his sarcasm _painfully_ clear. "Except that Itachi's a _psychopath_ and I don't want my brat-self within fifty _countries_ of that freak!" He shouted, pointing in the direction he remembered the Uchiha Clan to reside.

_"I agree. You will act against the idea, be as protective and nasty as you can. Make sure the Hokage knows right then and there that you do not want little Naruto anywhere near this mission."_

Sarutobi shook his head, finally having enough. "I will think about it. Gaara's idea to have his family come to Konoha worked out hellishly well so far, this idea may work as well." He said, not even bothering to lift his head when he knew that Naruto rounded on him, his face probably turning purple in rage. "However, you forget that it is a child's life and emotions we would be twisting for our own benefit, and that, Gaara, is something that I am not comfortable with. As I said, I will think about it, and I want you too, as well." He explained, looking to the redhead once again to make his point.

Gaara nodded his head, leaving the subject alone.

_"If we do that, then how will we get close to him?"_

The Hokage turned towards his drawer again, this time pulling out his much needed pipe and tobacco. "Tomorrow, at two in the afternoon, come back here and I will speak to you about my answer. You two think about it as well. Hopefully we will have come up with another tactic by then." He said, waving his hand dismissively.

_"We will, later. It's too soon and too dangerous to have him around. It is best to keep him away for at least a month."_

"I said fucking _no_!" Naruto growled through clenched teeth, rounding on his friend. "Itachi's a damn genius, you think he won't figure it out?! How would we even explain why we have the same name?!"

Sarutobi paused, turning to look at the blond as though he were waiting for the punchline to a joke.

Gaara just stared at Naruto as though he were a moron. "You honestly thought we wouldn't be using an alias?" When the blond's eyes widened, Gaara brought a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Naruto..." He sighed the blond's name in exasperation.

Naruto threw his arms up. "What?! I never said _I_ was the fucking smart one!"

Gaara shook his head as he opened the door and left. "_How_ I respect you is _beyond_ me."

Naruto jerked the door away from Gaara's grasp, leaving just after him. "Say that again, jerk!" He snapped, slamming the door without a thought.

Sarutobi shook his head, leaving the tobacco out. He had a feeling that a single pipe worth wouldn't be enough to calm his nerves after that conversation.

On the ground floor, Naruto and Gaara shared a grin as they exited the building.

* * *

Naruto grunted as he stepped into the apartment, watching his equally grocery burdened clone make his way over to the counter and set his load down before rushing back and helping the original. Once the vegetables were out of Naruto's face, he glanced around for Gaara, huffing in annoyance when the teen's ears finally picked up on the sound of the running shower. Naruto returned to the task of setting down the groceries, dismissing the clone when all of the bags were finally set down safely.

A grin managed to make its way to his face before long, as he reached in and grabbed a bag of cheap candies.

Apparently, the flow of currency in the past ran a bit differently than in his time. He had been a little curious when he had ordered all that food at Ichiraku on his first day in the village, and had been given an almost eye-poppingly low tab. It caused the blond to entertain thoughts of Old Man Ichiraku actually treating him wrongly and making his order's insanely expensive, as a few stores were known to do when he was growing up for a moment.

That idea flew out of the window when he went to the super market, and was able to buy his normal grocery list, doubled as he needed to feed Gaara as well, and still the bill only came up a fourth of what it cost him back home.

Naruto promptly ran back into the store, buying things he had always wanted to. Spaghetti noodles-- though he forgot about the tomato sauce. Fresh fruit and some weird-- yet interesting looking vegetables. He found three potted plants, one of them bordering on being a small indoor tree, two whole gallons of milk (one chocolate, of course) instead of a few small cartons, among other thing. and, last but not least, a bag of candy.

The Uzumaki grinned in his excitement, opening the bag carefully-- almost afraid it would explode on him.

Naruto had grown up on other people's funds his whole life. Graduating from the academy and accomplishing a few C-rank missions only went so far as giving him some spare pocket cash, that usually only went into his savings anyway. After that, he had been maintained by Jiraiya's wallet, though not as often as his own little frog purse would care to admit. Still, it was usually the perverted Sannin that paid for his food, shelter, and when he needed them, medical and clothing bills. It was the same when he had been staying with the toads, although he often ended up having to hunt for his own meals, lest he be stuck with some kind of insect gumbo.

He shuddered briefly at the memories of choking down Grandma Toads' Dragonfly Stew.

No, Naruto had never been one to have his own money, to buy his own stuff. The only exception being his savings, which the teen would grudgingly admit weren't even for himself. They were supposed to be for an absolute emergency-- should something happen in his apartment that needed a fast, and usually _expensive_ fix. Even though he hated it, he had always been given things. He was given money through the orphan fund, had been given food and clothing from Jiraiya, and had been given a place to lay his head from the Toads of Myoboku Mountain.

There had never, ever, been a time when Naruto had ever bought himself something that he wanted, that wouldn't last, and wasn't needed to keep alive, sheltered, or clothed.

Naruto had never, ever, bought a piece of candy.

He had been given the sweet treats on numerous occasions, be it from Iruka-sensei, Kakashi, Jiraiya, Sakura or any of his other friends-- but this was different.

_He_ bought it. He could actually _afford_ to buy it.

And really, he could even justify his selfishness by claiming that it was some kind of celebratory thing for being given the chance to save the future.

Gaara probably wouldn't buy such a lame excuse, but Naruto didn't really care.

He just grinned to himself, popping the first treat of many into his mouth.

"What are you so happy about?" Gaara asked, walking into the living room dressed once again in his tunic and trousers from Grass Country, a single towel resting on his head. Naruto's grin only grew, pointing towards the month's supply of food. Gaara didn't exactly look entirely impressed, but when Naruto lifted his wallet, showing off the still quite full funds, the redhead understood. "Ah." He said simply.

"We still must decide on our next plan of action." The redhead reminded, walking over and inspecting the groceries.

"We would only be able to get close to Sasuke." Naruto said, swallowing his treat. "That's _if_ he's alone, too. He's the only one I know for sure without the Sharingan right now."

Gaara lifted up some form of plant-like food, never having seen one in his life. "It would be fine as long as either one of us is there whenever Itachi makes an appearance." He said, setting the mystery food aside.

Naruto shrugged, his grin fading. "What are you going to do, transform into me? Hell, we can't even transform into kids and go in undercover!" He snorted, reaching into his bag and fishing for another fruit flavor. "The Sharingan, it shows chakra to them clear as day and they can friggin' _see_ when someone's using even an easy jutsu like that." He grumbled, rolling his eyes.

The Uchiha really were a pain in the ass.

Naruto continued, holding the bag out for Gaara to take a candy. "Even if we somehow got _freakishly_ lucky and he didn't recognize it as a transformation, there's still that little bit about Itachi being able to see that our chakra is _way_ too strong and built up to be just a kids." He reminded, shrugging when Gaara politely refused, listening to him carefully. "He'll know somethings up, then the whole mission will be busted when he attacks." Naruto finished, setting the bag on the counter with the rest of the food.

"What makes you think Itachi will attack at all?" Gaara asked, crossing his arms and leaning against the counter. "If we are never around while his Sharingan is activated, then there will be no problem."

"You've gotta be kidding me..." Naruto grumbled, rolling his eyes. "Let me tell you a little habit that people with Sharingan have." He said, turning to fully face his friend.

"If they feel like you've got one _eyelash_ too many, they'll Sharingan your ass to make sure everything is fine. If they see a curiosity inducing jutsu, like, for instance, your sand," He said sarcastically, rolling his head as though he were talking to a child. "It's complete _habit_ to activate their Sharingan and try to figure it out and copy it!"

"I can easily pass this off as a Kekkei Genkai." Gaara retorted, returning the insult and speaking slowly himself. "They can't copy it, it is a power I was born with as a host of the Shukaku."

"Not with your brat-self in town." Naruto snorted, beginning to set the groceries away. "If any Uchiha see him, they'll recognize you. If he shows off his sand even once, they'll recognize it. Even if they don't make the connection between you and him, or guess it's a 'Kekkei Genkai', they'll at least know you're from Suna. Hell, if they even see that you've both got the same gourd, they'll be on guard!" Naruto huffed, using a package of celery to point towards the gourd resting against the furnished couch.

He continued on his rant, opening the fridge and setting the vegetables in it's bottom drawers. "Thats not even if an Uchiha sees them-- that's if _anyone_ sees them and blabs off!"

Gaara frowned, turning his eye towards the idle mass of compacted sand. "I see... You're right." he murmured, fully realizing the trouble his younger self caused by simply being in town.

Naruto sighed, his shoulders falling limp. "At this rate we'll never get close to them...!" He whined, hugging onto a large watermelon in his grief.

Gaara blinked, eyes widening almost innocently as an idea struck him. "That's it."

When Naruto turned to look at him, still holding onto the large fruit, the redhead continued. "We don't get close to the Uchiha." He explained simply. "They get close to us."

Naruto stared at him for a moment, not yet releasing the melon. "You lost me."

Gaara turned towards the living room, picking up his gourd. "I have an idea." He said over his shoulder, not putting the heavy thing on as he made his way with it towards the back rooms.

"You do?" Naruto asked, watching his friend disappear behind the wall of the hallway. "Tell me already!" He cried, leaning away from the counter.

"I'll explain it to you and the Hokage tomorrow." Gaara's voice came from inside his room.

"I'm not gonna like it, am I?" Naruto asked, growling in annoyance when he heard a door close. "Hey!"

* * *

True to word, the next day Gaara relayed his idea against the Uchiha to Naruto and the Hokage, not at all surprised by the wide-eyed stares he received from the two. After almost a full five minutes of silence, Naruto, of course, had been the one to break it. "Gaara...This plan...It's..." The blond trailed off, blinking.

The redhead, nor the Hokage, were surprised when his face suddenly twisted into one of rage. "It's total _bullshit_!" He exploded, instantly going off on the other teen and not at all holding back on making a point of how much he hated the idea.

Gaara rested back in his seat, closing his eyes. "It's perfect." He countered.

Naruto grit his teeth, his mouth opening in preparation to colorfully tell his friend exactly _where_ to shove his 'perfect' little plan.

The Hokage cleared his throat, silencing the fight before it started. "It's clever." He admitted, ignoring the blond's shriek of outrage. Instead, he turned towards Gaara with a single raised eyebrow. "Your tactical skill is quite scary, young man." He murmured, slightly worried.

Gaara nodded. "I am beginning to agree with you on that, Hokage-san."

Naruto stared between the two, face twisted in disbelief. "Am I the only one that thinks this is _crazy_?!" He demanded, turning towards the old man almost desperately. "Hokage-sama!"

The village leader sighed, shaking his head. "Listen, no matter what plan is made, how many steps ahead you calculate, or how well you are prepared, something can and will always go wrong." He explained, watching the blond deflate a little. "It is best to take the plan that has the most chance of success, and so far, this is the best." He said with a finalizing tone to his voice.

Naruto let out an almost whine, not believing his ears. "But... _Hokage-sama!_ It's--!"

Gaara turned his head to one side, eyes still closed. "Degrading, debasing, unethical and just plain wrong." He agreed, easily imagining Naruto's face turning purple in his rage.

"Nothin' doin'!" Naruto shouted, lifting his arms and crossing them in a large, dramatic 'X' shape. "I refuse!"

The Hokage huffed, looking at the blond with a single arched eyebrow. "You think you're in any position to refuse?" He challenged, knitting his fingers together. Naruto crossed his arms, glaring out the window childishly.

"You're just acting this way because it'll be you that has to do it." Gaara said, earning the annoyance of the Hokage when his words started Naruto on his tirade again.

"Exactly!" The blond shouted, rounding on his friend. "You're the ex-evil bad-guy! Why the hell do _I_ have to do it?!"

Gaara opened his eyes, staring at the blond in a positively _irritating_ way that Naruto just _knew_ was mocking him. "Because _I_ have the jutsu that cannot be copied." He said simply, ignoring the blond's shaking fist.

"That's just fuckin' cheating." Naruto snapped. "Rasengan and summoning and sage techniques can't be copied either!" He reminded, listing the jutsu off on his fingers.

Gaara nodded. "Yes, but all of those are _offensive_ jutsu that would not only be out of place in this mission, but would give you away immediately." He said, shooting the other teen down.

"It's not fair...!" Naruto finally gave in as he fell back in his chair, though not before jabbing a finger rudely towards the redhead. "_You're_ not supposed to be the hero!"

Sarutobi had finally reached his limit, and impatiently turned to glare at the blond. "Quit acting like a child. Shinobi will always take missions they don't want." He reminded sternly. "I hate to say this Naruto, but I doubt that there will be a better plan to arise."

"We've got five _months_!" Naruto shrieked desperately. "You honestly don't think we'd be able to think something else up, or be given another opportunity between then and now?!"

Sarutobi shook his head. "You fail to realize that you are not simply on a mission to get close to the Uchiha, but you are to gather intelligence as well." He reminded, watching as the blond finally-- finally, started to settle down and _listen_. "That takes time. Waiting around for days, weeks, or months will rob you of that."

"But...!" Naruto tried pitifully, sighing when he realized that he wasn't going to win.

"There will be no 'ifs' 'ands' or 'buts' about it. You _will_ do this." Sarutobi said, setting his hand sharply against his desk, not unlike the gavel of a judge.

Naruto deflated completely, sighing at his fate.

Sarutobi nodded, closing his eyes for a moment, and then lifting his head, looking between both of his room's occupants. "I have also decided to add another member to this task and make it a full team." He informed, holding a hand up to silence them as Naruto and Gaara both sat up sharply in their seats. "It will be better for you two in the long run if you've got someone else aside from me that knows about you, and where you're from. He can help you out in a fight, should you end up in one on this mission. He knows this era well and even better yet, you know him."

Gaara began to sweat. "Hokage-sama," He said politely, shaking his head. "I don't think it'll be very wise to reveal our identities to..."

Naruto immediately rounded on him. "You be quiet! I'll bet whoever shows up'll have a hundred different ideas better'n you!" He snarled, earning a poisonous glare from the redhead. The blond just as easily ignored it and turned towards the Hokage, looking almost curious. "Who is he?"

"Hatake Kakashi." Sarutobi supplied quickly, watching the two relax immediately at his name. "He is currently busy on another assignment, but has already been briefed."

"Well, he does have a Sharingan." Gaara relented. "He will be a great source of information for what we're facing should we end up in a confrontation with Itachi."

The Hokage nodded his head. "It is decided then. You have one week, I expect you to have Kakashi up to date with this plan and the three of you _in contact_ with the Uchiha by the end of then." He said sternly, watching the two nod. "Dismissed."

* * *

"You're kidding, this is his mission? Baby-sitting you?" Naruto laughed, crouching down on his spot on one of Konoha's village roofs. He stared down at their newest team member, Kakashi, who was currently holding some kind of conversation with a small redheaded child that the blond immediately recognized as his friend's younger self.

Gaara shrugged. "So it seems." He muttered as though he were slightly distracted.

"Is that a teddy-bear?" Naruto suddenly asked, voice high pitched in his humor. "Dude, that's a teddy-bear!" He laughed, falling on his back in a fit of giggles.

Gaara closed his eyes tightly, sighing in annoyance at his friend's antics. "A perfectly normal toy for a child his age." He reminded, turning his attention once again to Kakashi below.

"Yeah, but you're not.." Naruto trailed off, paling when he realized what was about to say. Gaara sent him a glare that told him to shut up _now_ or he would regret it, and Naruto happily agreed. "Nevermind!" He laughed, returning to his position of staring down at his young future sensei.

It didn't take long for Gaara to notice the return of the sharpened look in the blond's eye. "What is it?" He asked finally, figuring the problem with his friend to have nothing to do with his earlier fight about the planned course of action against the Uchiha. "You've been... quiet since we left the Hokage's office."

"It's..." Naruto trailed off, puffing one of his cheeks in thought. After a moment, he nodded his head down towards Kakashi. "The Hokage briefed him without us knowing."

Gaara failed to see the point. "So?"

"I think the Hokage might have given Kakashi other orders, besides watching our backs." He finally said, crossing his arms.

Gaara's eyes widened in realization. "Probably to watch us..." He agreed. "Or to make sure we don't make a move to side with Itachi and betray Konoha."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Why would we do that?"

The Shukaku host shrugged. "He is just taking precautions. I would do the same in his position."

Naruto huffed, agreeing once Gaara put it that way. "Still though, why would he think we would need help in a fight?" He grouched. "You're a damn Kage, and I'm a Sage, and on top of than that, we're both Jinchuuriki! We're plenty strong on our own, and together, the whole Uchiha clan-- much less Itachi wouldn't stand a chance if it ended up as a brawl. That's without even drawing on our demons' power." Naruto pointed out, jabbing a finger down towards the unaware Kakashi. "Having him around in a fight would be dangerous, and he could get in the way."

Gaara sighed, shaking his head. "Sarutobi knows that you trust Kakashi, and he knows that Kakashi will never trust us, not completely."

"How is it you know my sensei so well?" Naruto asked, eyeing the redhead with a flat look. "It's creepy."

"You talk a lot." Gaara retorted airily. "It is easy to learn things when there is a constant source of information."

"That's cold." Naruto said in mock hurt. "Seriously, that was mean. I think you made me cry inside a little bit."

The future Kazekage ignored his friend's sarcastic remark, instead, focused on recalling everything that had been said to and from the Hokage. He frowned, remembering an earlier, seemingly pointless bit of information. "...The Hokage stated that he had suspicions beforehand, and that the Uchiha were acting strangely, and that he had assigned Itachi of all people to watch his father."

Naruto blinked. "Wait... but we already told him that Itachi's the one that killed his family, then after that he said we had to watch Itachi. That makes no--"

"It makes perfect sense." Gaara said, cutting him off. "He wants us to stay occupied with Itachi, when the problem lies with his father, Fugaku."

Naruto's eyes widened in realization. "He's sending us on a Wild-Goose Chase?!"

The future Kazekage shook his head. "He is keeping us _in_ the village, keeping us _occupied_ with something we _want_ to do, and in the end, if things go as we have described, he will have the information of the future he wants. Orochimaru's attack during the chunin exams will most likely not happen if we save the clan-- as he will either snatch another member of the clan entirely, or..." He trailed off, frowning. "No, never mind."

"What?" Naruto asked, raising an eyebrow suspiciously. "What were you going to say?"

"It's nothing." Gaara dismissed. "We will stay with watching Itachi."

Naruto huffed in annoyance. "Still? I thought you just said that we should focus on his dad?"

"We will, but we will observe Itachi as well. I have a feeling that his massacre of the clan was not as back-and-white as we had earlier thought."

"Seriously?" Naruto asked, groaning when the redhead nodded.

Why couldn't anything ever, just once, be _easy_?

"It is five _months_ before the slaughter. If Itachi truly were a psychopath and one night decided to kill everyone, especially if he were so highly ranked a ninja as you said, then he would leave no hints so early on of his intentions, if he left any at all." Gaara said suddenly, turning towards his friend.

Naruto frowned, keeping his eyes trained on the rooftops. "...But his dad is nervous." He agreed. "We need to figure out why the hell his dad is nervous. We figure that out, we figure everything out, probably."

The redhead simply nodded.

Naruto stood up suddenly, his face stretched out into a wide, sarcastic, too-sweet smile."_Damn_, and here I thought your plan was gonna work, too."

Gaara huffed. "Do not get your hopes up of getting out of it." He said, ignoring Naruto's look of surprise and continuing on. "All tactics are gambits, and a gambit is simply a scheme that will backfire should the opponent see it in time. Fortunately, we've noticed the Hokage's scheme soon enough. Our plan can still work."

Naruto looked reasonably doubtful. "How?"

"By turning his own plan against them." The other teen supplied vaguely, glancing down towards the young Hatake.

"Kakashi-sensei?" The blond asked, a bit confused.

"We simply need him on our side."

He shot Gaara a bored look. "Since when were there '_sides_'?"

"The moment the Hokage tried to sabotage our mission."

"Ha!" Naruto barked loudly. "That's easier said than done! Kakashi's probably _smarter_ than _you_, and you've already said it yourself, he won't trust us." He chided. "He'll never do anything you tell him-- you're a Kazekage! He'd never take your command unless it was in the middle of a fight and you told him to duck! Hell, he might not even do that!"

"You are absolutely right." Gaara said, the odd tone of his voice, and the blank expression on his face giving Naruto a weird vibe. "That's why _you_ will talk to him."

"Who?"

"You."

"Me?"

"Yes, you." Gaara said, his patience running thin. Naruto rolled his eyes, not able to believe that he was friends with someone who had such a bad sense of humor. "We've made it clear that there is a Fifth Hokage, although we have never said _who_ that Fifth Hokage is."

"I can't say _I_ was The Fifth! They'd never believe it!"He snapped, his head turning to the side quickly. His eye twitched and fist balled up in anger while grumbling something along the lines of "Really pisses me off too..."

"Who said it would be you?" Gaara huffed. "We'll make Kakashi believe _he_ was the fifth."

"Kakashi-sensei?!" Naruto asked, attention snapping back to Gaara. "Why him?!"

"Because even if he will not believe it completely, we will have planted the idea in his head. Kakashi is a hardened shinobi, there is no argument to that, but as it is now, he's younger and less experienced." The redhead reminded, before lifting his hand and pointing towards the Hokage monument. "A trait of all Hokage is their pride in their village, and need to protect it's people. The Kakashi of our time has shown these habits; at least when it concerns your team."

Naruto snorted, almost laughing at Gaara's misunderstanding of Konoha's will of fire. He didn't say anything, however, knowing that his friend's words weren't without truth. "We need him to want to protect the Uchiha clan." He stated, earning another not from the redhead. "If we can get him to do that, then he'll eventually realize that _we're_ the ones seriously out to save them, while the _Old Man_ is just trying to get us to run around in circles." He finished with a grin.

"Precisely."

* * *

Sorry for the obscene wait, I had some issues with this chapter...

Review, please!


	4. Just a Bad Day Getting Worse

**Aniki**

Chapter Four:

**Just A Bad Day Getting Worse**

I don't own Naruto.

**Warning**: This chapter's got lots of cussing.

**AN**: I've been getting some questions, flack and even a flame about how Naruto seems to be following after Gaara like some mindless lacky. My answer: This is going to be a long fic, and Naruto's attitude was completely on purpose on my part. Its a plot point. Chill. Allow a little room for character development and degeneration, would ya? Sheesh.

Also, since I generally hate reading something in a chapter, and have no idea what it is until I'm done reading and find notes at the end of the document, I'll be kind and let you all know that **a tetsubo is a Japanese, practically mythical iron club/mace type weapon.** If there are any Bleach fans here, the thing that Jinta Hanakari (the redhead that works for Urahara) swings around something that kind of looks like one.

* * *

Naruto Uzumaki _hated_ futons.

They were flat, hard, collected more dust than a neglected house, and were very nearly impossible to get comfortable on. A lump of whatever the shit that stuffed the traditional bed found pleasure in forming a rock-hard mass just under every single pressure point _imaginable_, and positively _refused_ to let him sleep for more than a half an hour at a time. Whats worse, was that the friggin' monstrosity somehow managed to generate an unholy _reek_ of rotten laundry detergent. He didn't know if soap could rot, but if it did, Naruto was pretty sure it would smell like his futon.

And so, Naruto's ceiling bore the brunt of the blond's wrathful, half-asleep glare at the unjustifiable hour in the morning.

He closed his eyes, evened his breathing, and tried to calm down by listening to the gentle sound of the clock ticking on the other side of the room. He tossed and turned for a few moments, trying to find a comfortable way to lay on the damned futon. No wonder everyone only kept them for guests, they sucked to sleep on. Give him a regular bed any time.

But, he had to admit, it was his mind that wouldn't let him sleep, not the narrow, hard futon. It wasn't an uncommon occurrence since he had come to the past. Seemed like since he'd arrived, he'd been worried about everyone back in his own time. Worried about the future Konoha, worried about the Akatsuki, worried about Sasuke, and even worried about Gaara's siblings.

Were they okay?

Were they dead?

Did they even exist anymore, or had that world ended when he was brought to this one?

His nerves had been in a state of chaos and confusion since Sasuke and Akatsuki had attacked, and the blond knew that he hadn't been right since. Nobody would notice right off hand, or maybe they did. Naruto himself didn't really know the full extent of what was wrong with him, so he couldn't be sure.

Maybe it was Gaara's constant company.

Maybe it was seeing The Third Hokage as a real bare-knuckle, cunning shinobi and not a smiling old man from his memories.

Maybe it was being presented with a chance to change the future.

Maybe it was the fact that he had made a pact with the demons.

Maybe it was that he was suddenly almost totally alone again.

Maybe it was his not knowing how his friends were in the future.

Maybe it was a lot of things.

Naruto clutched his pillow a bit harder.

Thinking about all of it made him unable to sleep.

Him being awake made him think about it.

Thinking about it put him in a _really_ bad mood.

_Tak!_

With a huff, the blond rolled over and glared up at his roof, tongue clicking in comical annoyance. "_Now_ what?!" He grumbled to himself, easily ignoring the aches and pains his body suffered from sleeping on such an uncomfortable mattress. Instead, he focused his attention on his roof, where he could feel Kakashi's chakra faintly emanating above.

The bastard was just over him, slightly to the left.

Naruto, having just been woken up for the umpteenth time, and therefor not in the greatest of moods-- or having the best common sense at the moment, actually entertained the thought of throwing a kunai through the wood, plaster and shingle barrier, and straight through the _stomping_ foot of his teenage-future-sensei.

No, what was he thinking? He couldn't do that to Kakashi.

Laying on the floor and still in zombie-mode as he was, he wouldn't be able to create enough thrust to make the little iron weapon blast cleanly through the thick and heavy wood and tiles fast enough to hit Kakashi's foot. Knowing his luck, Kakashi would assume he were being ambushed, attack the still half-asleep blond, and then proceed to run to the Hokage and spew some sort of paranoid nonsense about one Naruto "Arashi" Uzumaki being a liar and a traitor, and that was only _if_ Naruto was left alive. He'd never understand that he was being kindly told to get the hell off his roof.

Not that _Kakashi_ would kill him.

Oh no.

Gaara would do that _himself_, and make a bloody _show_ of it. Literally. If his redheaded friend came to discover that Naruto had done something so stupid just to amuse his own curiosity after only _just_ managing to have the Hokage release them, not even Naruto thought he'd survive the shit-storm that would come soon after.

Naruto's scowl deepened as he heard the almost silent, yet equally deafening 'skifs' of his to-be-sensei's shoes hitting his roof again.

The blond tilted his head to the side, pondering.

...If he used sage chakra, then he'd probably be able to get through the reinforced roof and the kunai'd get Kakashi for sure. All without having to get up, no less.

...On the other hand, the kunai'd probably cut the future-perv in half, too.

Decisions, decisions...

_Tak!_

Naruto scowled, veins bulged and eyes twitched. What the hell was Kakashi doing? Even if he were half-dead and missing a limb or two, Kakashi wouldn't ever be _that_ loud. Naruto didn't think Kakashi _could_ be that loud, even if he tried. Hell, his chakra leaking out for Naruto to feel it at all was testament enough that something wasn't right.

The blond tilted his head to the other side, pondering some more.

...Maybe the perv was caught peeking on some girls, kunoichi even, and _they_ threw a kunai through his foot.

Naruto snorted at the thought.

Another _'__Tak!_' and his annoyance grew again.

What was that idiot doing? Tap-dancing?

Naruto rose an eyebrow at the mental images that came to mind and suppressed the urge to laugh.

The tired teen wondering if perhaps since _this_ Kakashi was around his age, was therefore younger and stupider, he would actually do something that pea-brained, and actually be dumb enough to get a kunai between the toes for his perverted efforts.

Hmmm...

Kakashi nearly getting his foot lopped off because he was idiot enough to peep on girls and get caught...?

Naruto huffed again.

He'd _pay_ to see that.

As he returned more and more into the world of the awake, the reluctant-time-traveler remembered that he was, in fact, supposed to get Kakashi to believe that he were his Hokage in order for _another_ one of Gaara's _stupid,_ yet annoyingly _good,_ plans to work.

Naruto yawned, stopping his more unsound thoughts. When finally managing to resolve himself to wake up completely before he decided to let Kakashi know he was aware of his presence, he sighed and sat up. One hand supported his weight, the other scratched his mess of hair while he blinked away the last of his drowsiness. "I'm awake now, thanks to you and your lead feet!" He called out, throwing his pillow easily up at the roof where he knew Kakashi to be.

A moment later, the teen turned his head towards the window. His face, marred with the marks of his pillowcase's folds, and unusually large bags under his not-too-happy eyes, added onto the effect of letting _any_ moron know he wasn't in any mood to be awake at the ungodly hour of _five-thirteen_ in the morning.

Kakashi's head popped into view through the glass, single eye looking curiously at the blond from it's upside down position. "Light sleeper?" He asked, feet firmly latched to the small overhang of the apartment's roof.

Naruto's face fell deadpan. "What the hell? You wake me up and don't even say 'Good morning'?" He asked, wiggling the stiffness out of his fingers and toes. "Why are you here anyways?"

Kakashi tilted his head to the side, his single eye looking a bit more serious. "I've only got an hour to talk with you and your friend. Where is he?"

Naruto snorted loudly. "If you would've knocked on the door, he would've answered!" He gripped, pulling the blanket off of himself and moving to stand up. " Now get out of my window! I don't need you to peep on _me_ while I dress!"

Of what little bit of Kakashi's face was visible, one could easily tell that he was thoroughly disgusted by the blond's words just before he vanished.

Not five minutes later, Naruto's face was twisted into an even _more_ powerful expression of repulsion.

Gaara sat at the small table, not bothering to look at his suspiciously silent roommate, or the interestingly distant Kakashi, who had gone through the effort to sit as far as possible in the living room while still able to speak at a comfortable volume.

Naruto stared at the plate of food Gaara had been preparing while he had been busy mulling over whether or not to put a hole in his roof. The corner of his mouth twitched, eyes furrowed in complete mysticism. He reached out with his fork, poking the... _thing_ that took up space on his plate, and gulped.

Was that... a _tongue_?

Yes.

Yes it was.

Naruto dared to wonder _why_ it looked fried, seasoned, and placed between two slices of toast next to his now, not-so-appetizing eggs and fruit.

It was almost as if Gaara expected him to _eat_ it or something.

"Where..." Naruto trailed off, swallowing down the urge to retch. Why did his own tongue suddenly feel half-paralyzed, as though it were scared that _it_ were going to be on the menu in a few minutes? "Where did you... get that?" He finished, face turning green as his eyes fell on the bulging taste buds of the seared... was it even _called _meat? He most certainly did _not_ buy _that_ last night.

"It is from a foreign foods market down the street." Gaara explained airily. "I wanted gizzards, unfortunately, this is all they had." He finished, biting into his own tongue sandwich.

Naruto's body jerked in a dry-heave, and a hand quickly reached to cover his mouth.

"While this is an interesting insight to Suna's breakfast menu," Kakashi said, clearing his throat as he, too, tried to keep his own morning meal down albeit more discretely than Naruto. "...I believe we have business to discuss."

Naruto almost wanted to cry in gratitude for Kakashi's ability to get him out of having to choke down Gaara's utterly _foul_ idea of a breakfast--

"Eat, Naruto. You will need your strength today."

The blond let out an anguished sob.

* * *

"I don't know... They might be able to pick up the chakra signatures."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Its better than the other option!"

"I agree, Kakashi-san."

"Thank you, Gaara!" Naruto grouched, turning towards Kakashi impatient expectancy.

The Hatake shook his head. "The Sharingan would know that it's not normal."

"You wont have to get around a Sharingan if it's never activated! What's so suspicious about a perfectly normal animal for this region to sneak into a house?! There's a canal not even half a mile from here, It's perfectly believable!"

"Yes, but Gaara's eye jutsu is silent and malleable. A toad croaking this early in the morning would draw attention." Kakashi explained.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Are you insulting me on _purpose_?! My toads aren't like regular toads! If I tell 'em to be quiet, they will! They speak! _They understand my words_, damnit! It's not hard to get!" The blond ranted.

"Fine." Kakashi sighed in irritation, washing his hands of the argument. "We'll go with the toad, but if anything goes wrong, we'll switch to Gaa--"

Naruto didn't even give his future sensei enough time to finish his sentence before he bit his thumb, licking the side of his mouth to clean a small smudge of wayward blood. His hands flew through the familiar hand signs as he leaned over, his fingers just finishing the intricate dance of the summoning jutsu just before they slammed down on the earth. A plum of chakra borne smoke erupted from where his palms rested, and Naruto stood with a proud grin as the outline of a small, normal sized toad emerged.

The smirk shattered quickly when he saw the familiar blue and orange patterns that identified the amphibian as none-other than Gamakichi.

The small, baby frog turned slowly, looking about the woodland area with fear. "W-Where am I?" It asked itself, jumping away in fear when it noticed the three tall, looming figures around him.

Gaara turned towards Naruto, face contorted into something resembling confusion. "What happened?" He asked, his frown deepening when Naruto shook his head.

Kakashi remained carefully silent, observing the scene and summoning with his Sharingan.

Naruto shot them both a glare, and squatted down to look better at the tiny toad, putting on a pleasant smile. "Hello, Gamakichi, right?"

The toad took an awkward hop back. "My daddy told me not to talk to strangers!" It cried like a bratty three-year-old.

Naruto's eyebrow twitched. "I summoned you, so I'm not a stranger, right? I signed the contract."

Gamakichi didn't look convinced.

"Liar!" He croaked loudly. "Whenever there's a new contract, Grams and Gramps tells everyone! You're a stranger! I'm telling my Pa on you!"

"Why you little--!" Naruto growled, reaching out to snatch the small toad, only to miss when the anuran dismissed itself, leaving only a small wisp of smoke in its wake. "Damnit!" He cursed, returning to his feet and putting his hands on his hips to think.

Kakashi frowned. "Can't say I wasn't expecting that. You haven't signed any contracts in this time-line yet, so they don't know you."

"Oh, shut up! At least I found out about this now instead of in the middle of a fight when it could've killed me! Grah! Great! Now I have to go to Myoboku mountain and explain this shit all over again to the elder toads..." Naruto trailed off, grumbling about his newfound issues with one of his major jutsu.

The unmasked ANBU captain shook his head, leaping up into one of the higher tree branches, gaining a clear view of the Uchiha Estates just beyond the tree line. "It's not like we were depending completely on it. Even if Gaara's justu fails, I have a few that will work. We're not in trouble yet." He explained, watching as Naruto silently landed just next to him on another branch, attention tuned to him as any other student would their teacher.

Kakashi had to admit, the attention was a little weird.

Beneath them, now resting against the trunk, sat Gaara. One hand occupied with forming a seal, the other's fingers covering his closed left eye. The skin between where his eyebrows would have been was furrowed in concentration, and after a long moment, he spoke.

"The mother is in the shower."

A blush spread across Naruto's face. He quickly willed it away, ignoring the images that came to mind. "What about Sasuke's dad?" Naruto asked, mentally checking off the Uchiha matriarch's location.

"He is in the shower with her." Gaara replied dryly. "Need I elaborate?"

The Uzumaki reached a hand up, covering his face. "_No_." He didn't even want to picture what the Pervy-Sage would say or do if he were here with him. "Can you find Sasuke and Itachi?"

Gaara shifted his hand slightly, watching his third eye's travel down the neat and clean wooden halls of the Uchiha Clan's main house. Dissolving, sliding under doors and reforming over and over again through the many rooms of the home was no strain on his chakra, though it did take time. Finally, after ten long minutes, his efforts reached fruitation.

"I have found Sasuke." He informed, voice a bit more serious, if possible. "He is asleep."

Kakashi frowned at the sand shinobi's skill. In another time, place and under different circumstances, he would probably be incredibly intrigued. As it were now, however, he had yet to come to peace with them not being labeled as intruders, and could only see such an ability as a problem should it be used against him or the Hokage instead of a valuable tool. His thoughts didn't leak into his voice of false impression. "Itachi should be somewhere close by." He offered, leaning his weight to one hip. He was getting short on time, and honestly didn't want to exert the effort or chakra needed to send a shadow clone out ahead of him to watch the visiting Suna medics.

Naruto crossed his arms, falling into a sitting position on his branch. "You've already gone through almost all the rooms in the whole house-- maybe he's off training somewhere?" He wondered aloud, turning towards Kakashi.

The ever aloof teen shrugged. "All I know is that he's not on assignment right now."

"Guys." Gaara called from below. "He is in the kitchen. He appears to be getting ready to leave." The redhead commented, releasing his jutsu.

Naruto huffed, slipping from his branch and falling to stand just next to his friend. A moment later, Kakashi was at their side, staring ahead towards the Uchiha Complex. "Now that we've got his location confirmed, I'll leave you two with this," He said, handing Naruto a slip of paper.

Naruto glanced over the scribbled words, face showing genuine shock. "You got this already?" He asked, both shocked and sickened. "The Hokage gave us a whole week to find him! How'd you do it in a single day?"

Kakashi shrugged. "I've got connections." He said aloofly. "This is where I leave you to make the preparations. I'll see you by the eastern canal pass in four hours." He said finally, vanishing in an instant.

When Gaara turned to Naruto, the blond teen sighed in annoyance. "Yeah, yeah, I'm going." He muttered, slipping the paper in his pocket and vanishing in much the same way as Kakashi.

When he next appeared, the blond was a good half kilometer west of where he and the other members of his team had just been. He landed on the random rooftop with practiced accuracy, instantly recognizing his location and leaping off again further west. His eyes turned towards the Hokage Monument, a small grin coming to his lips as the sunlight hit the faces, marking it as time for the rest of the village to wake up.

Another leap and landing later, Naruto found himself on one of the less popular market streets.

To his left, a not-entirely charming young lady sent him a lustful look, making sure to give him a good view of her legs while blowing him a kiss. The blond frowned, not at all impressed as he made his way over to her. The young brunette, almost five years his senior, grinned as he approached.

Her fingers traced the too-low hem of her blouse, lips pursed in a show of skilled seduction practice. "Whats a _painfully_ good-lookin' guy like you doin' in a place like this so early in the morning?" She cooed, stepping away from her perch against an alley wall. "Have a wild dream and want it to come true?" She asked, eyes trailing over his body shamelessly. It wasn't every day that she, or any other girl in her profession got the chance to have a little fun with a shinobi that wasn't missing an arm or a leg, or covered head-to-toe in hideous scars, after all.

Naruto scowled at her, feeling throughly violated by her eyes even though he remained fully dressed. "No." He said, firm and flat voice instantly telling the girl that he was there for business and not pleasure.

The young woman frowned, leaning back and returning to her spot against the wall. "Then get out of the way, you're costing me money."

Pulling out his still-stuffed frog wallet, the teen sighed. "I need information." He said, shaking the comical frog and letting the jingle of the coins seduce the young woman into a grin.

"If the price is right," The young woman said, reaching out to trace her fingers against his chest. Naruto's scowl deepened, and the working girl's grin widened. "...I'll tell you _anything_ you want me too." She said, slipping what would have been an enticing moan into her little declaration.

Naruto handed her the slip of paper Kakashi had handed to him. "I need this."

The woman's jaw went slack as she glanced at the parchment's contents. "Y-Yeah, this way." She said, leading him down the alley.

* * *

"You're late."

Naruto grunted as he landed, dropping his heavy burden. The blond turned to glare poison at Gaara, a blush on his face he didn't think he was going to lose for a solid week. "_You_ try bartering with prostitutes! Do you have any idea how _dirty_ I feel right now?! Half of them wouldn't even accept my money!"

That caught Gaara's attention. "They recognized you as the host of--?"

Naruto cut him off by practically tearing away his jacket, shrugging the heavy orange costume off almost desperately. "I wish, damnit!" He snarled, hastily stripping himself of his pants. "They wanted _favors_!" He continued, reaching into his bundle and pulling out a black and white striped outfit.

Gaara rolled his eyes as Naruto dressed himself. "Whores offer themselves free of charge and you turn them down like a gentleman." He said blandly, glancing around the woodland area. "Such chivalry would bring your sensei to tears, I'm sure."

Naruto grit his teeth as he buttoned up the convict uniform, bending over to reach into his package, pulling out a red and brown ogre mask, adorned with a wild mane of black hair long enough to hide his own blond spikes. "Keep it up and I'll go back and make sure that all the drag-queens in fire country know where to find you!" He warned, pushing the mask high on his head and freeing his face.

Gaara kept curiously quiet on the subject after that. Instead, he turned to face the large wrapped bag at the blond's feet, pulling one of it's folds aside and glancing at it's remaining contents. "...It looks fresh enough." He finally said before reaching out to the cadaver's bare torso and stabbing his hand into it's stomach.

Naruto screwed his face into one of disgust. "He better fucking be, I had to watch him get ripped off his screw and have his neck snapped. Poor bastard didn't even get to finish." He said, scowl deepening at the man's still erect member pushing up the thick black body bag that housed him. His eyes traveled up again, watching as the body's flesh moved in unnatural ways as the redhead's hand groped around on the inside. "What the _hell_ are you doing?" He finally asked.

He watched as Gaara pulled his hand out, wiping the excess blood onto the body's bare chest. "He is an escaped convict, it is not unheard of for men in his situation to have surprises inside their person." He said, tossing the blond a small rubber ball.

Naruto caught it with ease, rolling the small bundle through his fingers carefully. "What is this, drugs?" He asked, blinking in surprise.

Gaara nodded, stepping over to a small puddle of water and using it to clean his hand of the mess. The sand on his hand and forearm jumped away like a burnt cat, floating impatiently as it waited for him to finish. "One of the more powerful hallucinogenics that Konoha is known for, I assume. If it had gotten mixed with my sand, and then made contact with me, I do not wish to imagine the problems that would come after." He explained, drying his hand against the lush grass at his feet before returning to his feet once again.

Naruto, for the second time that day, felt like was going to throw up.

It was bad enough he had to have someone killed, but hearing that Gaara intended to puree the unlucky bastard on top of it, made him begin to _really_ hate this damn idea. "You're sick, you know?" He huffed, tossing the bloody rubber ball back to Gaara.

"But of course."

* * *

By the time Itachi Uchiha realized that he was being followed, he was already halfway to the large, secluded training grounds he had reserved for the day. His posture, expression, or air of calmness didn't change when he noticed, nor did he stop on his journey to his destination. The teen didn't bother to look around, as he had already pinpointed where his stalker was.

The brown and black kitten gave a loud meow of greeting, quickly following his easy pace.

Itachi sighed, his grip on his packed lunch tightening. "You follow me every morning, and I never give you my food." He mumbled to himself, turning to glance at the kitten rushing up to his side. "Shoo." He ordered lamely.

The kitten meowed again, ears perking up in interest.

"Itachi!" Said teen lifted his head quickly, glancing back down the road to see Sasuke rushing to catch him. The little boy managed to catch up after a moment, his breathing labored. "M-mom..." He trailed off, gasping for air.

Itachi turned to face his brother, patiently waiting for the boy to catch his breath. "Mom?" He asked again after a minute.

Sasuke quickly stood back up, nodding. "Mom told me to tell you that she's going to the market, and I can't go."

Itachi blinked. "Why not?" He asked, suddenly regretting the question.

Sasuke shrugged. "She said something about soap."

The older of the brothers shuddered internally, wishing that he were as naïve as the other at that particular moment in time. Instead, he nodded his head to signal for Sasuke to follow him. "Shisui is waiting for me, so let's not be late." He smiled, quickly shoving any thoughts of his parents to the darkest recesses of his mind.

Sasuke nodded in excitement, clicking his tongue at the kitten next to him and rushing ahead to race with it.

The older of the brothers sighed, knowing that it was going to be a long day.

* * *

"Where is he?!"

A half-naked young woman was thrown against the hard wooden wall of her room. Her face was covered in thick scratches and her body started to show the angry red and purple bruises given by her latest 'guest'. "I-I don't know!" She cried, screaming when the large man came up and grabbed her hair. "Some ninja guy came in this morning and said he needed to know where he could find him! He was looking for him by name!" She screamed hurriedly, desperately trying to get him to release her.

The man paused in his fury, but quickly resumed his quest for answers and shook her, ignoring the woman's crying. "So you gave him up?!" He demanded, shaking her again.

She screamed in pain, feeling her hair and scalp being pulled away from her skull. "T-The ninja guy paid good money, and your bastard of a friend killed thirteen of our girls! We were happy to see that freak go--!" The woman's moment of bravery was short lived when the man crouched next to her, the thick scent of dirt and sweat nearly making her retch. She flinched away, closing her eyes tightly when the man reached up, grabbing the side of her face.

"What was the ninja's name?" He asked slowly, the grip on her jaw tightening.

"We're prostitutes," She sobbed. "We don't don't ask for names--!"

"If you ever plan on seeing tomorrow, you'd better tell me something I want to hear." The man warned, his hand slipping down to clutch her neck. With little effort, he lifted her from her heap on the floor, and pressed her against the wall, a good two feet from the floor. The woman shook, her attention focused completely on his index finger hovering just above her eye

She desperately clawed at his hand, gasping for air. "H-He was young! Maybe seventeen or eighteen!" She choked out. A sharp slam against the wall and the woman coughed, trying to remember details. "H-He had blond hair and tattoos on his face that looked like whiskers! He had blue eyes and a tan! He wore orange!"

The man huffed, pulling her forward, still dangling her in the air. "Which way did he go?"

She lifted a shaky, pain riddled arm and pointed east.

**

* * *

  
**

Kakashi landed expertly next to Naruto and Gaara, his attention immediately on the noticeably dead body dressed in the same getup as who he guessed was Naruto. He raised an eyebrow at the mask, slightly curious how the teen would be able to see out of it, as it didn't appear to have any holes for eyes. "I see that you two are right on schedule." He said airily, turning his attention to Gaara, who was once again sitting, his hands in the position that indicated that he were using the third eye jutsu.

The redhead's face twisted into one of disdain. "There is a major problem."

Naruto cursed, his hands resting on his hips impatiently. "Sasuke showed up." He supplied. "And Itachi's not alone. There's another Uchiha with them. We can't hold this shit off until tomorrow-- after a few hours this asshole will be useless!" Naruto growled, kicking the stiffening body.

Kakashi sighed. "I'd hate to see you get dressed up for nothing. What's with the mask?" He asked, honestly curious.

Naruto snorted, knocking against the reinforced metal. "Heat resistant." He answered simply.

Kakashi nodded. "Clever move, though if you're planning on being hit by fire jutsu, you should've gotten a lot more 'fire resistant' armor, or clothes." He said, eyeing the tattered black and white convict uniform.

If the blond's body language were anything to go by, Kakashi guessed he were being mentally strangled.

The teen ANBU captain frowned, walking up towards the corpse and lifting the mask. "At least you got the right guy." He offered lazily, huffing in mild amusement at the smudge of lipstick on the man's face.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Of course. Who do you think my sensei was?" The teen grouched, crossing his arms.

It was true. Though Jiraiya's means to gather information were unorthodox, and more often than not immoral, hardly any piece of fact or rumor could be kept from the man. Naruto had spent years with him, and had seen most all of the Sannin's techniques first hand. If there were one thing Naruto learned rather fast with Jiraiya, it was that woman were not to be underestimated. Particularly the one's who sold themselves. They were, more often than not, the first goal of a man who had spent time away from the world. He also knew that those same women, when given even more money, would sing the secrets of any man who had been naïve enough to tell her.

Finding a man who had escaped from Konoha's high security prisons, had been a pervert, and rumored to return to the village, was the kind of bastard that wouldn't be hard to find.

Gaara stood up, releasing his jutsu. "We will simply have to revert to plan 'B'." He said.

Naruto groaned.

Kakashi glanced between the two, his eyebrow raised in curiosity. "What's plan 'B'?"

* * *

"Hahaha!"

Three Uchiha heads spun towards the South, two of which on high alert. "What--" Itachi started, cutting himself short before having to dodge out of the way of a lunatic man in an ogre's mask. A single blink of the eye and the Sharingan spun behind his long eyelashes.

"Sasuke!" Itachi shouted, summoning two shadow clones and ordering them to attack the stranger while he appeared behind his brother. The younger of the two let out a yelp, scared and unable to fully process what was going on. For lack of anything else to do in the mess, he clutched onto the back of Itachi's shirt with a white-knuckle grip, and shuddered when he heard the stranger cackle insanely.

The masked prisoner-looking man began to spin on his feet and sent two shadow clones of his own out towards the brothers.

Itachi frowned, unable to tell the original from the clones because of the rapid movement.

The third Uchiha, Shisui, quickly appeared at his side and was blocking and countering the melee attacks before Sasuke even saw the loud stranger approach.

On his brother's back, the six-year-old shook in fear.

"Who are you?!" Shisui demanded, catching the leg of one of the clones with one arm just as he blocked an oncoming kunai attack towards the back of his head. The fourteen-year-old Uchiha flicked his fingers, sending the kunai aimed perfectly towards the neck of the clone behind him. It ducked, backing off long enough for him to angrily lift his leg and shoot his foot out, slamming it into the captive clone's knee and effectively severing the limb. Cartilage, bone and blood exploded from behind, and just as the screaming clone released, the Uchiha spun, his shoulders leaning down and his blood covered foot reaching up to slam it's heel into the remaining clone's neck.

"Shisui! Get down!" Itachi screamed from out of nowhere, and just as the long braided teen's chest hit the ground, a powerful gust of wind flew over him, followed by the sound of blood spatter and dispelling clones.

The eldest of the three Uchiha flew back up to his feet, rounding on his cousins. "You're still here?! Get Sasuke somewhere safe--!" The teen cut himself off by jumping as quickly as he could in front of his cousins, grabbing them and covering themselves from the blast of a grenade.

"Fucking Uchiha! I'll get you for that!" cried a chorus of ten Masked Marauders from behind various trees, jumbling the Uchiha's idea of where he might be.

Almost to add further insult to injury, Itachi felt his jaw set, hearing the poorly disguised voice of his enemy. "Identify yourself!" Itachi demanded from behind his tree, hiding Sasuke and keeping the boy silent with a hand over his mouth.

Sasuke's eyes turned towards his long-haired cousin, his eyes watching as the teen brought a hand to his lips, indicating for him to be silent. The boy nodded his head, nervous sweat trailing down his temple as he watched Shisui sink into the ground and disappear.

Naruto grunted quietly in pain, the earlier clone's memories of pain making the limb dully ache. He ignored it. He had a job to do. It wasn't real, the pain would go away in a few seconds. He beat the back of his head into the trunk of the tree he hid behind. He didn't have enough time to sit around and bark back and forth with the Uchiha!

The disguised blond was quickly given a reason to move, catching sight of a small, unnatural shift in the wind just to his left. He jerked his body over, his right arm and leg being the only thing that left him latched by chakra to the thick branch. The long black mane of hair attached to his mask lost a few strands as a kunai adorned with an exploding tag landed mere inches from his face. Naruto grunted loudly, bringing himself closer to the branch just enough to give him proper leverage to push away.

The tree exploded, sending sharp, jagged chunks of splintered wood in all directions. Naruto coughed, gasping in pain and annoyance as he pulled a thin shard from his forearm. "Who the _fuck_ are you?!" Naruto growled, landing roughly on the ground and ignoring the wind as three of his clones flew past him, attacking the Uchiha in the higher branches.

Naruto didn't bother sticking around long enough for an answer, and turned on his heel, another clone dropping beside him and transforming into a tetsubo. The sudden massive weight of the spiked, iron club didn't slow him down much, and when one of the last hidden clones dispensed, Naruto grinned, feeling small amounts of sage chakra flow into him. The added strength made the massive weapon feel like a feather in his grip.

Itachi and Sasuke had barely a moment to dodge before the masked Naruto blasted through the tree. The disguised blond could feel the almost tickling sensation of chakra crawling over his skin in a thin layer. "Oh, no you don't!" He growled, twisting his body in the air and swinging the heavy weapon again. Itachi cursed loudly, nearly loosing his grip on Sasuke.

This monster could tell when he was being placed under a Sharingan genjutsu?!

"Stay still!" Naruto shouted, landing with a crashing 'Boom!' on the ground and wasting no time before he swung the iron mallet again. This time, he drug it against the ground, throwing up a tall and thick cloud of dirt and debris that shrouded the Uchiha brothers.

They were blind!

Itachi coughed, shoving the scared and sobbing younger boy away from him. "Run!" He ordered, creating three more shadow clones and ordering them to get Sasuke the _hell_ out of here and somewhere safe. "Shisui!"

Naruto uncaringly registered that as the unknown Uchiha's name as he watched the little Uchiha make an attempt to flee. "Where do you think _you're_ going?!" He snarled, taking a step to race after him, stopping as he saw an impressive amount of Shisuis bleed out from the ground and surrounding trees. He set his feet, resting the intimidating tetsubo over his shoulder.

"His destination is none of your concern." They chorused, half lifting enough kunai and shuriken to turn him into swiss cheese and the rest forming seals for various fire jutsu. "Identify yourself! Why are you attacking us?!" He demanded again.

Naruto huffed. "You're such a pain in the ass...." He grumbled, quickly lowering his stance and letting his hands fly through a short series of seals.

The ten clones preparing the fire jutsu let them fly, hardly leaving a singe on the masses of chakra reinforced black hair hurtling towards them, cocooning them and squeezing the weak clones out of existence before heading straight towards the original.

Shisui cursed, barely able to make it back into the cover of the earth in time to dodge.

Once again, Naruto skipped over him and made his way towards Sasuke.

"You're not finished here!" Itachi yelled, surprising Naruto from above and catching the masked teen with a hell storm of a Phoenix Flower Justu. The Uchiha heir pushed himself off of his tree, tackling the smoking and cursing Naruto to the ground before he could escape. With a sharp pulse of chakra in his legs and feet, Itachi let out a loud screaming grunt of effort to kick away the insanely heavy tetsubo.

Itachi grabbed the convict's striped jacket, ignoring the residual heat and stink of burnt flesh and hair, and sat up, lifting the larger body of the masked madman and twisted, slamming the heavy freak into the side of a nearby tree. Itachi didn't give him a moment to catch his breath before he let loose with a barrage of powerful taijutsu combos, cracking the thick trunk of the tree more and more with every blow before blasting him through it completely.

Naruto hissed, skidding painfully along the littered earth of the forest floor before he managed to shake off the dizzying stars and sparkles spinning around his head. He grunted, tucking into himself to shield his head as he fell into an almost too-fast-roll on the ground. Once he managed to regain his sense of balance, he hopped, landing on all fours to glare ahead at the pissed Uchiha. "Fuck..." He muttered, wincing as he felt the sting of his ribs pressing against his lungs. He stood up, taking a deep breath and ignoring the sharp pains that came with the internal 'pops' as the bones realigned themselves and knit back together.

He grinned, sighing in a teasing tune as he released the breath of air. "Aren't you a tough one?" He taunted, twisting his head in a curious angle.

Itachi frowned, his feet skiffing the ground as he slid into a proper fighting stance once again. "I'll rip that mask from your face and reveal you for who you really are. You deserve only death if you think you can target the Uchiha and live."

"Curious about whats under the mask, huh?" Naruto murmured curiously, an idea forming in his head as he reflected back on a particular mission he, Sakura and Sasuke shared against Kakashi back in the day. "Why didn't you ask sooner?" He giggled madly, lifting his hands up, fingers wiggling teasingly as they clasped around the forehead of the iron disguise.

Itachi set his jaw, Sharingan slowly spinning.

The fingers paused.

"On second thought," Naruto chirped all too happily, laughing as he shifted his wrists and let his fingers come together in a familiar seal. "That'd just be boring!" He cried, erupting into a thin cloud of smoke.

A feminine voice let out a sultry giggle as the smoke cleared, and soft, smooth, bare flesh made itself known to the world, bouncing and rubbing in not at all any form of a decent manner. "Don't you think so, _Uchiha-kuuun_?" The raven tressed beauty moaned teasingly.

Itachi actually stopped for an entire second as his eyes recorded, in perfect detail, a very developed female version of himself.

That one second almost proved to be his demise.

"Get your brain back on your shoulders, damnit! He's attacking!" Shisui cried, appearing just behind the false beauty and slashing with his kunai, aiming for her Achilles tendons. He growled as he missed _again_ and watched as the woman shifted back into the masquerading convict, laughing while he made his way up into the trees and out of the way of the three tetsubo wielding clones running around on a whack-a-mole mission against the older Uchiha.

Itachi grew a furious blush over his face and spun on his heel, dug his hands into his weapons pouch, and released with a poison gas bomb with a smoke effect just at the eye level of the enemy. A cloud of deep blue death released, the trees and leaves seeming to rot as it came in contact with it.

As soon as Itachi's hands let loose of the bomb, he pulled them back, hands flying through a series of seals. "Fuuton: Wind Prison Justu!"

Naruto hacked, blood spattering the inside of his mask when he tried to escape its clutches, only to have as damnable funnel of wind keeping him stuck in place and cutting small lacerations into his skin, further allowing the poison to wreak its havoc on his system.

Itachi watched his mysterious enemy cough as he fell to his knees on the branch, staggering slightly in his attempts to not fall. He had finally gotten the upper hand in the battle, and as such, felt as though it were time to ask some questions. "Why are you attacking--?" He trailed off, frowning as he noticed the man suddenly pause, head turning off towards the side for a moment. The Uchiha watched him stand, dispelling the wind jutsu with a bored wave of the arm as... _as though it were nothing!_ The madman even rolled his shoulder, giving of the impression that he were yawning!

Itachi had never felt so insulted in his _life_!

"Not that this hasn't been fun," Naruto drawled lazily, utterly enjoin the bewildered face of the monstrous Uchiha heir beneath him. "But I gotta go." He laughed, flashing a peace sign as two of his shadow clones blasted through the foliage, a struggling and tied up Sasuke thrown over one's shoulder and the three Itachi clones that were assigned to protect him hogtied and gagged together, grunting as they tried to escape.

Shisui ran up from beneath the earth, appearing at Itachi's side and rushing towards the original masked shinobi. It was at this point that Itachi decided to forgo all procedure to capture the criminal and heading after his brother.

The Uchiha cousins didn't even manage to get three feet away from one another before the two were sent flying in opposite directions with the original body of the 'criminal' in their center, arms and legs poised in the aftermath of the attacks that cleared them out of his way. "You're too late!" Naruto shouted towards the surrounding forest. "I've got him now!" The maniac screamed, catching the thoroughly freaked out Sasuke thrown by his clones as though he were a ball. He wasted no time before he pulled out a kunai, spinning it in a flashy show before resting it over the child's throat before Itachi and Shisui could shake themselves of their daze and try to save him.

Gaara blasted through the brush, his clothes changed to the standard Konoha uniform. "Release the child." He ordered.

Sasuke screamed, quickly being silenced by the kunai pressing further to his neck. "Na-a-ah! You be quiet, my little hostage." Naruto warned in his disguised voice. He turned his masked head towards Gaara again, his posture giving the indication that he would move soon.

Itachi scrambled to his feet, face twisted into shock and worry. "Who are you?!" He demanded, stepping forward, ready to help his brother and blast the new arrival away if he gave any inclination as to being on the insane convict's side.

Naruto spun around quickly, shifting between looking at him and his 'partner in crime'. "Name's aren't important, are they? If you weren't so busy asking about mine, you probably woulda had me dead by now, huh?" He laughed, stepping back. "This kid's is, though. Little Prince U-chi-ha!" He sang.

Gaara shifted slightly. "Do not act rashly." He began, regaining the attention of the two Uchiha. "If you hurt that child, you will be given no chance to--"

Naruto cut the redhead off with a swear, barely managing to jump away as the second Uchiha flew up from the ground just where the masquerading blond had been standing. "Back off already!" He cried, landing steadily against the trunk of a tree.

Beneath his mask, Naruto's grit his teeth. He was really getting tired of that Uchiha bastards jutsu. The blond growled to himself, spinning his kunai expertly as he put it away. The teen held a single hand up, summoning a clone and jumping off of it. "Nice try, but not enough!" He laughed, vanishing in the air.

Itachi stormed over to Gaara, not recognizing him. "What is the meaning of this?!" He demanded, ignoring Shisui as he landed just next to him. "Who are you?!"

Kakashi landed next to Gaara, breathing heavily. "Shit, we're too late." He cursed, resting his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath. He turned to Gaara, one eye narrowed. "What happened?" He demanded sharply.

Gaara wiped a bit of sweat from his face, making sure to not touch the faux leaf headband on his forehead. "The target has taken a hostage, Sasuke Uchiha, if I am not mistaken." He informed, turning towards the enraged remaining two Uchiha. "The man who has just taken your kin is a wanted criminal with a vendetta against your clan."

Itachi immediately vanished, no doubt taking off after his brother. Kakashi turned towards the remaining Uchiha, pointing towards the nearby Uchiha complex. "Inform Fugaku! Hurry!" He ordered sternly.

The teen spit at Kakashi's feet. "Like we have time for that, Kakashi! I'm going ahead, you send whoever that is to tell the old man!" He snapped, throwing his arm to point at Gaara and running off without giving the young ANBU captain a chance to retaliate.

"Damnit!"

* * *

Hot tears erupted from Naruto's eyes beneath his mask as Sasuke, for the tenth time in two minutes, bit down with all of his strength onto his captor's hand. Honestly, Naruto was worried that the little brat would take out a chunk of flesh before long. The teen grunted, jerking the younger self of his teammate into a more stable position while he ran along the tree branches. "Stop it!" He demanded, still keeping his voice disguised.

Sasuke thrashed in his hold. "Let me go! My big brother will kill you for this! My daddy will arrest you!" He screamed, trying like hell to get his short legs to reach high enough to kick his captor. "Let me go!" He screamed again, forgoing his efforts to kick the crazy masked man and returning to biting him.

Naruto grit his teeth as he tried to endure the pain. "I said knock it off you little shit!" He screamed, almost losing it and knocking the little brat out cold. "You bite me again and I'll knock every tooth you have out, you hear me?!"

Sasuke's only response was to bite down twice as hard.

"Why you little--!" Naruto screeched, having had enough and raising his fist.

He paused, the sleeve of his convict uniform being suddenly pinned to the trunk of the tree he stood on. Naruto had just enough time to rip his arm lose and leap away before that unknown Uchiha from earlier landed heavily against the side of the trunk, right where Naruto's head had been not a second before.

The two faced off against one another, Naruto remaining perfectly still as he observed the newest pain in his ass. The Uchiha wore traditional fighting robes, not unlike Neji, and had some kind of Uchiha armor over his torso and left shoulder, the Uchiha emblem painted onto it neatly. The guy had half squinted eyes, making him look tired, and a long braid of hair that reached just about to his knees.

Naruto scowled.

He didn't like fighting Uchiha, especially one's he didn't know anything about.

The disguised teen once again adjusted the squirming Sasuke under his arm and let his train of thought revert to his earlier encounter. He couldn't put his finger on it, but something about this guy rubbed the blond the wrong way. That jutsu he used was familiar somehow, and it only irked him further when he found himself unable to recall where he had seen it before. Something about that Uchiha's whole presence seemed...off. Naruto usually had a pretty good intuition, and although it almost always led towards believing in the good in the most evil of enemies... he just couldn't get over the bad vibe this Uchiha let off.

"Shisui!" Sasuke suddenly screamed, half sobbing. "Save me!" He cried, his struggle for freedom returning with new vigor.

Naruto, having finally reached the last of his patience, gave Sasuke another hard jerk. The frightened boy's head shot up, crashing down sharply with against the reinforced metal of the ogre mask. Naruto shifted his weight, happy that Sasuke finally went limp.

His hand was especially grateful.

"Shisui, huh?" He asked, tilting his head to the side oddly to reinforce his image of a less than sane individual. "I haven't heard of you before." He sang menacingly.

"I like it that way." Shisui replied, standing on the trunk of the tree, his body parallel to the ground.

Naruto scoffed, leaning forward. "That's a nifty jutsu you use! What's it's name?" Naruto asked, voice playful.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" The Uchiha smirked, releasing the chakra at his feet and falling into the branch just under him.

When Naruto didn't see him fall back out, he decided that he didn't want to know where 'Shisui' would pop up again. "Che" He growled, exploding off of the branch he rested on and flew ahead once again, this time watching his surroundings more carefully.

* * *

Itachi, Gaara and Kakashi raced through the trees in hot pursuit of Naruto and Sasuke. Itachi pulled ahead, determined to reclaim his brother and severely maim that crazy bastard that took off with him. He was grateful that it was his cousin who had followed after first, knowing that Shisui was the fastest among them.

His eyes glanced back, falling onto the redhead once again. He didn't know the new shinobi at all, and had never even so much as seen him around town before. The Uchiha could tell that whoever he was, physical activity at high speed wasn't his area of expertise. In fact, Itachi decided as he noticed the sweat developing over the older teen's face, the redhead was incredibly out of shape.

"Who are you?" He finally asked, his voice clear and leaving no doubt that he wanted answers.

Kakashi answered for Gaara, who hadn't even spared Itachi a glance. "That's classified information by order of the Hokage." He said, grunting as he landed roughly on the thin branch of one of the many trees.

Itachi's eyes narrowed. "Who kidnapped my brother?"

This time, Gaara did answer. "Kujomaru. He escaped from a level three high security prison just outside of Konoha three days ago. His whereabouts were unknown until this morning, and we have been in pursuit of him since." He said, reciting the information Kakashi had given him just moments before their ruse began. "He had been captured by your father, Fugaku Uchiha, last year and has been adamant on revenge."

Itachi's heart raced as he recognized the name. "He was arrested for acts of terrorism against the police force-- it took half of the entire military police force to capture him!"

At this, Gaara and Kakashi shared an equally confused look. Naruto had acquired him with no trouble this morning, and a single year of incarceration was hardly enough time for a shinobi that strong to lose so much strength by inactivity. "I think you may have confused your facts, Itachi." Kakashi said, leaping ahead to be next to the thirteen-year-old. "We have had--"

Itachi turned towards Kakashi, and his eyes had such an obvious presence of complete fear that the silver-haired teen couldn't help but think that he had completely, utterly, irreversibly _fucked up_ somewhere when deciding to use Kujomaru as the foundation for this mission. "You're the ones with the backwards information-- I'm not worried about Kujomaru!" He rushed, pumping chakra into his feet and exploding ahead.

Itachi set his jaw, praying that he would get to his brother in time.

Gaara panted, catching up to Kakashi. The teen sent the Konoha native a dark look, already irritated with the mess that the day had dissolved into. "What did you miss?" He demanded. "Itachi is not the type to act this rashly. Whatever went wrong is serious."

Kakashi wracked his brain, unable to figure out his mistake. "I don't know, Itachi implied that it wasn't Kujomaru himself that was the problem."

As soon as the words left the Hatake's mouth, he found himself flying towards the ground at an alarming speed, the wind knocked out of him by Itachi's impact. "Wh--!"

Itachi twisted against Kakashi, coughing blood into the air as the ANBU captain managed to catch the two of them and land in a long, unsteady skid against the forest floor. "_Fuck_--" Itachi grabbed Kakashi's vest, roughly twisting them both out of the way as a spear landed.

Kakashi watched with wide eyes as more than a few strands of his hair fell.

Gaara almost lost his footing as he made an impromptu landing against a thick tree branch, his head twisting almost too quickly towards the direction the spear came from. He strove to catch his breath, the sand against his skin shifting and lifting, revealing his true clothes and dissolving the appearance of the Konoha uniform he sported just moments before.

The sand floated around him eerily, not exactly knowing which direction it needed to protect him from. "Identify yourself!" He called out, glancing with his peripheral vision to make sure that his comrades were not hurt.

The redhead's eyes widened, his vision suddenly distorted and seeing everything as though he were underwater. The future Kazekage leaned forward, his hand clutching onto the tree's bark in desperate attempt to make sure he didn't fall. "What is this...?" He hissed, his grip fluctuating between strong and weak without his control. A distorted cackle emerged from the large, open view of trees and branches and Gaara immediately recognized it as not being Naruto.

He swore, wincing as his eyes grew over sensitive to the midday light.

"Well, well, well... If it isn't the heir to the amazing Uchiha clan, in the flesh." The voice called, sounding closer this time. "Well, I take that back."

Itachi cried out, suddenly having an impossibly heavy weight slammed into his back and pinning him against the already short winded Kakashi. The man, abnormally tall and incredibly large in both fat and muscle, leaned over a bit, grinding his foot into the young teen's spine. "In the flesh, before I peel it off, that is." He laughed.

"W-Who are you?" Kakashi gasped out, feeling the pressure on his ribs growing.

The man lifted his head, frowning as he turned to the side and lazily reached to retrieve his weapon. "Like that's any of your fuckin' business." He said, spinning the long weapon in his fingers with ease. It stopped short, the blade a mere inch from Kakashi's throat. "You have three seconds to tell me where I can find a blond ninja with whisker tattoos and wears orange, or you'll be breathing from a tube for the rest of your life."

Gaara's heart stopped for a moment, instantly realizing that this new enemy was looking for Naruto.

At that moment, the reason Itachi's worry became obviously clear to the redhead. He hadn't been worried about Kujomaru, he had been worried about his _partner_.

"We don't know who you mean!" The future Kazekage called, feeling his equilibrium slowly returning. "Identify yourself!" He ordered again, reappearing on the flat earth before he ended up in a position where he would fall.

The sand floated above him, blocking the sun as best it could. He had recalled Itachi saying that it took half of the entire police force-- composed entirely of Jonin level shinobi-- having trouble capturing this man. He treaded lightly, his mind racing as he tried to figure out a way to release Itachi and Kakashi from his hold unhurt.

The man sent him a dark look, his foot not lifting any of it's weight from the struggling Uchiha's back, or moving his spear the slightest millimeter from it's dangerous position. "What's wrong with you assholes? It's _rude_ to answer a question with another question, you know." He huffed, earning a loud scream from his two captives as he pressed more weight on them.

He smirked at the loud '_snaps_' of their ribs giving away. "Now, I'll ask you again: Where can I find a blond ninja with whisker tattoos that wears orange? He took off with my partner, and you've been in contact." He repeated, any signs of joviality leaving his expression.

Gaara's slightly shifting fingers went unnoticed, his chakra swimming beneath the earth. "I've already stated that I don't know anyone by that description." He said calmly, his breath finally returning to him.

Just a little more...

The burly man didn't look impressed. "Quit fuckin' _lying_. I can smell him on you." He said, eyes falling to the teen's one visible hand.

Gaara scowled slightly, remembering that to be the hand that he had used to pull the drugs out of the corpse. This new enemy could smell blood so faint, so far away? After he had washed the appendage, and even exposed it to other elements? What kind of nose did this monster have?

"Excuse me for saying this, but you don't seem the type to keep many friends." Gaara said, his hidden hand making a slow curving motion.

Almost there...

"What is your interest in the man ? Is he kin? Perhaps a slave of some sort?" Gaara continued.

The man growled, his grip on his spear tightening. "Look here, asshole, I've got the hostages, so you aren't in any place to question me. Tell me what I wanna know or I'll make sure your buddy here chokes on his own blood!"

There!

Gaara's face relaxed significantly, almost fooling the man into thinking the teen had cracked a minuscule grin for a moment. The redheads arm swooped forward, sending a tidal wave of earth towards his enemy. The man cursed, nearly falling over when his weight was thrown off. His eyes glanced back towards his hostages long enough for him to see the earth suddenly collapse under them, swallowing them whole as if it had a life of it's own.

He gripped his spear, swinging it in a wide arc and dispersing the sand that threatened to envelope him long enough for the convict to escape. "Ha!" He shouted, landing up in one of the lowest surrounding tree branches.

Gaara's face remained lax, expanding the bubble of air twenty feet below the ground's surface, shielding his injured comrades and allowing them more time to regain themselves. "You have no chance of escaping my sand." He stated calmly, eyes relaxing as the glare of the light around him began to return to normal.

The convict sneered. "Oh, I doubt that." He sang, standing and holding his spear just ahead of him. With a grace that could only be gained from years of practice, he began to spin it. "I am Akuratsu the Blinding, the man who challenged the Uchiha!" He shouted, releasing a pulse of chakra.

Gaara's sand reacted, shielding the redhead from the barrage of wind that came his way. The earthen guard slithered away, allowing the slightly remaining breeze to shift it's master's hair. Gaara stared ahead unflinchingly, his eyes dark, showing that he was falling into a mood for bloodshed. "I am Gaara of the Desert." He said evenly, raising one arm. "You..."

Gaara abruptly shut his eyes, hissing as the sudden light sensitivity returned with a vengeance. "Damnit." He growled, the sand around him reacting as though it were confused. "What is this?" He demanded, unable to even squint.

The convict laughed, pulling up the bladed end of his spear and blowing the remains of a nearly invisible powder away. He reached into the folds of his cloths, pulling out a small, thin ball of the strange mixture and pressing it against the blade, sliding it down the pole, spreading it excessively. "This is a perfected poison dust that my clan has used for centuries. Does everything seem bright to you? Do you feel seasick suddenly?" He laughed, holding his hand out and blowing the remains of the powder towards Gaara tauntingly. "I'll admit that your little sand trick is tough, and obviously useful, but it's worthless against me!"

Gaara let out a grunt of frustration, mentally calling the sand back to him and forming a hardened shield around himself. As the last traces of light vanished, the teen opened his eyes, quickly noticing his ability to see better in the dark.

He fell into a sitting position, his hands quickly working into a series of seals he had done numerous times today. "Persistent..." He muttered, closing his eyes and bring two fingers over the right.

The convict smirked, seeing the large sphere appear around the brat. "Dumbass, you'll need to breathe sometime..." He chuckled, blinking when he noticed a floating ball of some sort starting to form just above the hiding kid.

He raised an eyebrow, seeing it take on the form of an eye, turning in random directions before falling onto him.

The man grinned widely. "Heh... brat's more resourceful than I thought." He muttered, crouching a bit more in his excitement. "This oughta be interestin'!"

* * *

Naruto swore as he scrambled out of the way of another insanely fast Grand Fireball. The chakra enhanced embers brushed the still unconscious Sasuke's hair slightly, the hot air making the black strands float. The masked teen growled to himself, finally having had enough of this duck-and-dodge game that this Shisui bastard loved to play so much.

He brought his fingers together, not at all impeded by Sasuke's mass, and poured out enough chakra to create a thousand clones. "Try and catch us now, Uchiha bastard!" They cackled, all tearing off into different directions.

Shisui remained silent, bleeding out of a broken tree. He watched the clones take off, and turned his activated Sharingan towards the North, where the real body was heading. He remained still, silently rethinking his next course of action.

He could easily tell the clones from the original, just as he could easily tell that those massive amount of clones were_ shadow_ clones. No human, Kage included, should be able to conjure that amazing amount of solid bodies without tapping themselves dry and invoking their own death by complete exhaustion.

The amount that he had summoned in their fight before he captured Sasuke had been amazing, but this...

This was _insane_.

The fourteen-year-old scowled, not glancing from the direction of the escaping madman as one of his own clones shimmered into life, attention equally tuned towards the North.

"Find Itachi and relay this information. I don't think I'll be able to handle this guy on my own."

The clone gave a single nod, rushing back in the direction they came.

* * *

For whatever it was worth, Gaara was immensely grateful that while using his Third Eye Jutsu, he was not blinded by the sensitivity his own natural eyes were prone to. He watched his enemy readying himself where he sat on his branch, waiting patiently for him to make a move. The redhead wasn't stupid, he knew Akuratsu was waiting for him to make a move, hoping that he would make an opening to either attack or breathe.

Gaara simply reinforced the sand shell, preventing any further influx of oxygen. The teen expanded his sphere slightly, straining his chakra resources to pull Kakashi and Itachi's large pocket of air from underground up under him. As his foundation crumbled, he landed safely on the ground next to them, pushing the hard minerals that was their shell into his surface sphere.

Itachi held his chest tentatively, wincing a bit as he made room for Gaara in the small space. "I don't know who you are, but you saved our lives." He said, coughing quietly. "Thank you."

Gaara didn't answer him. Instead, he moved his available arm, using his chakra to push and pull the minerals in the surrounding earth. "Please remain silent, it strains my concentration." He said simply, frowning as he realized that Konoha's soil wasn't dry enough for him to use enough sand to create a false desert.

Kakashi swore, falling against the dirt wall, the sweat on his face pouring through his mask. "What happened to that guy?" He asked, not exactly sure where the jinchuuriki was in the pitch black bubble.

Gaara frowned. "He used some sort of eye irritant on me, making me motion sick and incredibly sensitive to light. He seems to use wind currents to make it airborne. I have little doubt that even trace amounts of it causes a potent effect, and that the best course of action is to simply not allow myself to be susceptible to his dust." He supplied, grunting as he balled his fist and pulled his arm back. "He is five meters away, just to my left, off of the ground. He is waiting on me to attack, but growing impatient. He should attack soon."

Itachi watched as best he could in the dark as Gaara moved his arm, grunting ever so often in his efforts to prepare whatever jutsu it was he was working on. "Is this some kind of earth jutsu?" He asked, knocking his fingers against the compressed minerals.

Gaara remained silent for a moment, jerking his arm back. The walls of their shell suddenly opened up, allowing a small burst of fresh air. "...No. It is an ability that I was born with. I believe your country calls is a Kekkeigenkai. Now please, be silent." He said again, ignoring the sweat falling down his face.

Itachi remained silent, watching the redhead with renewed interest. Country...? Was this guy not from Konoha? He had been wearing a leaf on his forehead earlier, but if the shift of the working teen's clothes were anything to go buy, he would deduce that his clothes had somehow changed from the Konoha standard. Who was this guy? A foreign agent working for the Hokage? An intruder? Perhaps someone who had been raised under a foreigner?

Was he in league with that maniac who had kidnapped his brother?

No... Kakashi seemed to know him, and said that his identity was confidential, by the Hokage's order. Whoever he was, if the Hokage knew about him and had him working with Kakashi of all people, then he couldn't be in with a couple escaped convicts. Kakashi was loyal to the Hokage, and thus Konoha and it's people. He wouldn't side with criminals, and he wouldn't let someone who was working with said criminals on the loose.

Itachi shifted his weight painfully, taking a deep breath and readying himself before he stood. He definitely had a broken rib, maybe two. He winced as he took a breath, feeling a rib sharply pressing against his lung. "We need to come up with a plan. Kakashi and I need medical treatment as soon as possible." He gasped, feeling the ribs move unnaturally under his skin.

Gaara remained calm, his arm lifting towards their roof fluidly. Itachi was pushed back to his feet, crying out in pain as their shelter of sorts shifted. "It will be over soon." He said vaguely.

Kakashi coughed, feeling as though he were being lifted. "What's going on?" He asked, worried.

"I am going to kill him." The redhead supplied simply, shifting to a sitting position. Kakashi and Itachi felt the sand on the walls and floor suddenly growing around them, not giving them an inch of room to move from. Gaara watched the convict with unwavering attention, the sand forming a pillar down the middle, securing him.

He opened his eyes once more, the seafoam green irises tinting golden as he called on the chakra of the Shukaku.

On his branch, Akuratsu scowled. His head tilted up to watch the floating mass of sand and stone ten meters above ground. It was large, easily twice as big as it had been before. "What the...?" He wondered aloud, seeing the mass start to shrink, as though compacting itself.

Spikes erupted from it, and Akuratsu's eyes flew open, recognizing the monster above him for what it was. "Shit!" He yelled, nearly loosing his legs as the mass of sand came hurdling down at him at frightening speed.

It rolled against the ground, coming to a complete stop after demolishing a couple dozen trees. The floating eye shifted, falling back onto the convict after a moment. It hovered, twitching every once and a while like a lizard's.

Akuratsu scowled, tightening his grip on his spear. He watched the thing sit still for a long moment, and his scowl lightened to a smirk. That thing was nothing but show! It had speed and destructive power, but if it took so long to ready itself for another attack... "Fuckin' kids these days..." He huffed, reaching into his robes and pulling out a grenade.

The eye fixated on it immediately, shooting up into the sky and out of the way as the huge mass of sand started to spin, rushing up to it's target with alarming speed.

Inside the wrecking ball, Kakashi and Itachi felt sick, completely disorientated and swore to themselves that if they had ever managed to get out of this monstrosity, they would kick the redhead square in the teeth. "S-Stop... I t-think I'm going to..." Itachi gulped, unable to even cover his mouth, his arms being held by the sand.

Kakashi let out a strangled moan.

"Come on out of that thing and face me yourself, fucker!" The convict shouted, narrowly escaping the massive ball again. Instead of being slowed down by the trees it demolished, it simply bounced off of the ground, returning to the air as easily as a seasoned shinobi walked up a wall.

Akuratsu turned in midair, throwing the grenade at the floating eye and letting out a shout of victory as it made a direct hit, releasing a thick, _blinding_ cloud of smoke. He twisted again, landing roughly on the ground and skidding to a halt, his hand spinning his spear confidently. "You little punks are fucked, I've got you figured out now!" He shouted.

Inside the wreaking ball, Gaara allowed himself a small smirk. "Desert Avalanche."

Akuratsu's eyes narrowed, nearly dropping his spear in his shock as the earth beneath him began to roar and shake violently. He leaped up, sweating as he narrowly escaped the hands of sand reaching up and grabbing where he had been mere moments before. He turned his head, suddenly noticing that he didn't have a solid surface to land on. The convict paled, eyes scanning over the solid acre of haunted, shifting sand.

The smoke cleared around the eye of sand, it locking onto him in mere seconds once the obscuring veil lifted.

Akuratsu scowled as he started to make his decent, realizing at that moment how royally _fucked_ he was.

* * *

Far off in the distance, a white haired man watched the chaotic events as they unfolded, his presence well hided by the surrounding branches and from all parties involved in the fights. He shifted, his eyes following the massive movement of the trees as an army of clones swept through them.

"So thats him, huh?"

A scowl formed on his face, deepened by the lines that came with his age.

"What the _hell_ is going on?"

* * *

Itachi was totally owned by Naruto's Sexy-Jutsu.

...And Naruto _totally _did it for the lulz.

This chapter took a while to come out with because I'm not really confidant with my ability to write fights, and the fact that I ended up merging what I had of chapter five with it. Thats also partly why its kind of long for my usual length.

R&R please!


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